FOREIGN  MAGIC 

JEAN  CARTER  COCHRAN 


THE  OLD  WATER-WAYS  OF  CHINA  HAVE  AN   INTEREST  AND 
A  CHARM  THAT  BRING  NEW    PLEASURES   TO  THE   TRAVELLER 
AT   EVERY   TURN 


FOREIGN  MAGIC 

TALES  OF  EVERY-DAY  CHINA 
BY 

JEAN  CARTER  COCHRAN 

AUTHOR  OF  "THE  RAINBOW  IN  THE  RAEST," 
"NANCY'S  MOTHER,"  ETC. 


NEW  YORK 
GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,  1919, 

BY  MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  MOVEMENT 
OP  THE  UNITED  STATES  AMD  CANADA 


FEINTED  IH  THE  UNITED  STATES  OP  AMERICA. 


TO 

s.  c. 

THIS  BOOK  IS  AFFECTIONATELY  DEDICATED 

Not  hedged  about  by  sacerdotal  rule 

He  walks  the  fellow  of  the  scarred  and  weak, 

Liberal  and  wise  his  gifts;  he  goes  to  school 
To  justice;  and  he  turns  the  other  cheek. 

He  looks  not  holy,  simple  his  belief, 

His  creed  for  mystic  visions  do  not  scan; 

The  face  shows  lines,  cut  there  by  others'  griefs. 
And  in  his  eyes  is  love  of  brother  man. 

Not  self,  nor  self-salvation  is  his  care, 

He  yearns  to  make  the  world  a  summer  clime 

To  live  in;  and  his  mission  everywhere 

Is  strangely  like  the  Christ's  in  olden  time. 

No  mediaeval  mystery,  no  crowned, 

Dim  figure,  halo-ringed,  uncanny  bright: 

A  modern  saint!    A  man  who  treads  earth's  ground, 
And  ministers  to  man  with  all  his  might. 

— Richard  Burton 


405696 


IN  writing  the  following  sketches  the  author 
has  received  help  from  many  sources,  for 
which  she  is  very  grateful.  She  wishes  to  thank 
the  editors  of  the  Outlook,  the  Missionary  Re- 
view  of  the  World,  Woman's  Work,  and  the 
Woman's  Publication  Committee  of  the  Pres 
byterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  for  per 
mission  to  reproduce  stories  that  have  already 
appeared  in  their  magazines.  She  also  desires 
to  express  particular  gratitude  to  Mr.  Law 
rence  Abbott,  without  whose  encouragement 
and  inspiration  she  would  never  have  dared  to 
attempt  this  little  volume. 


vii 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

FOREWORD 15 

I    THE  SHADOW  ON  THE  LIGHT  OF  ASIA  .     .  21 

II    WEH  SAO  TZE  THE  MILITANT    ....  35 

III  MR.  CHANG  OF  THE  CRYSTAL  SPRING  VIL 

LAGE      46 

IV  PERE  PERRIN 57 

V    A  CHINESE  DOCTOR 69 

VI    THE  INCENSE  BURNER 92 

VII    How  BETTY  SAVED  THE  KIDDIES    .     .     .  110 

VIII    A  GONE  GOOSE 119 

IX    THE  DEVIOUS  WAYS  OF  A  HOUSE-BOAT     .  133 

X    FOREIGN  MAGIC  .  155 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

THE  OLD  WATER-WAYS  OF  CHINA      .     .  Frontispiece 

PAGE 

THE  ROAD  TO  FENG  Ti  Fu 32 

THE  BOYS  FROM  THE  FENG  Ti  Fu  SCHOOL       .  40 

A    FUEL    GLEANER    IN    A    FAMINE-STRICKEN 

VILLAGE 04 

THE  Ox  IN  THE  VILLAGE  OF  THE  ARROGANT 

DRAGON 72 

THE  QUIET  GARDEN  IN  A  CHINESE  COURTYARD     .  96 

IN  CHINA  No  ONE  is  IN  A  HURRY  ....  144 

THE  POPULAR  VEHICLE  HOLDS  A  HOMEWARD- 
BOUND  PATIENT  160 


FOREIGN  MAGIC 


FOREIGN  MAGIC 


FOREWORD 

OMEWHERE  in  China  the  plains  stretch 
mile  upon  mile,  much  farther  than  the  eye 
can  see.  Many  days  it  takes  to  traverse  these 
plains  by  slow-going  native  cart,  by  donkey,  or 
on  foot,  and  the  stranger  is  astonished  at  the 
numberless  hamlets  and  tiny  villages  which 
come  in  sight,  all  so  similar,  and  all  so  full  of 
children.  In  the  springtime  the  landscape 
seems  to  smile,  for  the  whole  world  is  dressed 
in  shimmering  green,  and  song-birds  fly  low 
over  the  tender  stalks  of  grain,  while  the  warm 
sun  shines  gaily  down  upon  the  scene.  But 
when  the  days  of  autumn  arrive,  and  the  crops 
have  all  been  garnered,  the  sordidness  and 
grinding  poverty  of  the  land  are  laid  bare,  and 
it  takes  a  stout  heart  and  cheerful  spirit  in  the 
traveller  to  keep  him  from  being  depressed 
and  burdened  by  what  he  sees. 

Somewhere  in  the  heart  of  this  great  plain 

15 


16  FOREWORD 


is:  hidden  $  Riarket  town  which  shall  be  known, 
By'wa^ofdiisgtiise,  as  the  city  of  Feng  Ti  Fu. 
The  translation  of  the  real  name  of  this  place 
reads  like  poetry,  for  it  is,  "The  city  that  those 
who  are  far  away  love."  In  all  the  names  of 
earth,  surely  none  was  ever  more  inspired  nor 
a  happier  choice  than  this ! 

Feng  Ti  Fu  is  not  without  natural  attrac 
tions.  Through  it  runs  the  river,  and  on  either 
side,  like  giant  gateways,  stand  East  and  West 
mountains ;  for  at  this  point  the  plains  are  in 
tersected  by  ranges  of  rocky  hills.  If  the  book 
of  the  life  of  the  city  could  be  written,  it  would 
be  one  of  tears  and  laughter,  but  the  misery 
would  far  outweigh  the  gladness,  for  a  shadow 
falls  across  the  place  from  West  Mountain 
crowned  with  its  Buddhist  temple,  and  the 
shadow  of  that  temple  has  darkened  many  lives. 
The  fear  of  death,  and  of  the  malice  of  evil 
spirits,  has  been  responsible  for  countless 
crimes  that  have  occurred  within  the  city  walls 
and  out  in  the  rocky  caves  of  the  mountain 
side. 

Within  recent  years  a  new  day  has  begun 
to  dispel  the  darkness,  and  though  the  signs 
of  the  dawn  are  faint  as  yet,  a  feeling  of  change 
is  in  the  air.  Sounder  ideas  are  taking  the 
place  of  old  superstitions,  and,  under  the  touch 


FOREWORD  17 

of  this  new  life,  characters  are  developing  and 
growing,  and  some  who  formerly  resembled 
the  brute  beast  are  beginning  to  show  on  their 
faces  a  livelier  intelligence.  There  are  many 
causes  at  work  to  make  this  possible;  the  de 
sire  for  education  and  for  more  conveniences, 
and  the  longing  for  less  poverty  and  for  more 
abundance.  But  the  greatest  cause  of  all  is 
to  be  found  in  the  lives  and  teaching  of  a  little 
group  of  strangers  from  another  land  who 
have  settled  down  in  the  country,  moved  by  the 
pitifulness  of  the  need  and  by  the  belief  that 
in  the  lowest  there  is  still  a  spark  of  the  divine 
fire,  waiting  only  to  be  rekindled. 

The  first  years  of  the  work  of  this  group 
were  marked  by  privations  and  hardships  that 
others  could  never  imagine,  and  which  must  be 
endured  to  be  appreciated.  Living  in  the 
primitive  Cottages  with  thatched  roofs  and 
rough  floors,  there  were  few  necessities  and 
no  luxuries,  while  the  evidences  of  antagonism 
and  even  hatred  that  were  met  with  in  the 
streets  added  to  the  loneliness  and  desolation. 
The  church  was  housed  in  a  lowly  building 
made  over  for  the  purpose,  and  another  equally 
lowly  was  used  for  a  hospital.  In  fact,  so  poor 
was  this  structure  that  bits  of  mud  from  the 


18  FOREWORD 

if***"^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^*^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

roof  often  dropped  on  the  operating  table 
while  the  doctor  was  working  over  a  patient. 

After  sixteen  years  of  earnest  effort  all  this 
is  changed;  a  new  hospital  stands  in  a  com 
manding  position  overlooking  the  river,  and  a 
school  for  boys  and  another  for  girls  now 
stand  as  models  for  the  educational  system  of 
the  whole  province.  Residences  have  been 
erected,  and,  by  no  means  least  in  importance, 
an  attractive  church  has  been  built,  the  clock  on 
which  rings  out  the  hours  over  the  city,  the 
first  town  clock  in  all  that  part  of  China. 

The  author  of  this  book  was  privileged  to 
spend  a  year  in  China,  and  visited  Feng  Ti 
Fu,  where  she  made  the  acquaintance  of  some 
of  the  people  mentioned  in  these  stories.  Other 
characters  and  incidents  have  been  gathered 
from  reports,  letters,  and  conversations,  but 
let  readers  beware  of  trying  to  identify  a  sin 
gle  person ;  their  efforts  will  be  futile,  since  the 
author  has  allowed  imagination  to  hold  full 
sway,  and  has  woven  fact  and  fancy  freely  to 
gether  in  an  attempt  to  make  the  country  and 
people  life-like  to  those  who  have  never  seen 
them. 

No  one  should  pick  up  this  book  hoping  to 
find  it  a  treatise  on  sociology  or  philanthropy, 
for  it  consists  of  but  a  few  simple  stories  of  the 


FOREWORD  19 

every-day  life  of  some  very  human  people. 
Nevertheless,  it  is  from  humble  material  like 
this  that  a  country's  heroes  have  been  made, 
and  in  the  years  to  come  China  will  say  of  some 
of  them,  as  Kipling  so  proudly  sings  of  Eng 
land's  sons, 

Not  in  the  thick  of  the  fight, 
Not  in  the  press  of  the  odds, 
Do  the  heroes  come  to  their  height 
Or  we  know  the  demigods. 

They  are  too  near  to  be  great, 
But  our  children  will  understand 
When  and  how  our  fate 
Was  changed,  and  by  whose  hand. 

Our  children  will  measure  their  worth ; 
We  are  content  to  be  blind ; 
For  we  know  we  walk  on  a  new-born  earth 
With  the  saviours  of  mankind. 


THE  SHADOW  ON  THE  LIGHT  OF  ASIA 

I  THINK  a  person's  religion  is  like  their 
skin;  they  are  born  with  it  and  they  can 
not  alter  it.  Besides,  the  Orientals  are  happy 
in  their  religion ;  then  why  under  heaven  should 
we  seek  to  change  it?  I  call  it  giving  ourselves 
foolish  airs."  With  the  complacent  manner  of 
one  who  has  put  forth  an  absolutely  unanswer 
able  argument,  my  friend  sipped  her  tea  and 
started  a  lively  discussion  on  world  peace  with 
her  other  neighbour. 

"Happy  in  their  religion!"  At  these  words 
the  tasteful  drawing-room  faded  away,  and  I 
ceased  to  listen  to  the  merry  chatter  around 
me,  while  Li  Sao  Tze's  gentle  face  arose  before 
my  vision  and  I  lost  myself  in  the  thought  of 
my  days  in  China. 

Is  it  mere  chance  that  on  leaving  the  soft 
green  shores  of  Japan,  one  must  sail  through 
a  yellow  sea  before  one  can  reach  the  yellow 
country  and  meet  the  yellow  people,  and  must 
the  religion  be  yellow  because  the  skin  is,  I 

21 


22 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

wonder?  We  had  sailed  through  the  Yellow 
Sea  on  our  voyage  of  discovery,  and  steamed 
up  the  river  to  Shanghai  with  our  Occidental 
eyes  wide  open  to  miss  no  sight,  our  ears  atten 
tive  to  miss  no  sound,  and  our  unwilling  noses 
missing  no  scent  of  that  strange  land,  for  it 
seemed  as  if  even  the  little  breezes  smelled 
yellow. 

The  tales  of  our  childhood  ahout  Topsy- 
Turvy  Land  came  to  our  minds  as  our  ragged- 
queued  rickshamen  whisked  us  around  corners, 
and  we  found  to  our  dismay  that  we  were  ex 
pected  to  point  the  way  to  them,  instead  of 
their  showing  it  to  us.  Newcomers  must  be 
ware,  if  they  do  not  want  to  be  landed  in  some 
unsavoury  corner  of  the  native  city  where  no 
word  of  English  is  spoken. 

As  we  had  a  guide  we  were  ultimately  deliv 
ered  in  good  order  at  our  destination.  Our 
first  night  on  Chinese  soil  was  a  test  as  to 
whether  we  could  stand  the  alarms  of  life  in 
the  Interior.  We  were  regaled  at  dinner  with 
stories  of  the  famous  Shanghai  riot  that  had 
occurred  shortly  before  our  arrival,  and  also 
with  detailed  accounts  of  the  massacre  that  had 
recently  taken  place  in  the  south.  It  was  all 
part  of  the  day's  work  to  those  hardened  to  the 


THE  SHADOW  ON  ASIA        28 

vicissitudes  of  life  in  China,  but  it  stamped  it 
self  deeply  on  our  impressionable  minds. 

After  retiring  that  night  I  found  that  the 
tales  to  which  we  had  listened  still  haunted  my 
brain,  and  unable  to  sleep,  suffered  in  imagina 
tion  all  the  horrors  that  had  been  related.  I 
must  have  been  in  bed  about  two  hours  when 
suddenly  I  heard  shouts  in  the  distance,  and 
then  what  seemed  like  hundreds  of  hurrying 
footsteps  and  the  most  terrifying  shrieks.  I 
hastily  arose  and  ran  to  the  window  and  lis 
tened,  shaking  with  fear,  and  fully  convinced 
that  the  rioters  were  coming,  thirsting  for 
foreign  blood.  In  intense  anxiety  I  waited  for 
the  people  of  the  house  to  sound  the  alarm  and 
call  us  together  to  make  our  escape,  but  every 
one  slept  peacefully  on,  while  each  moment  the 
din  grew  wilder.  Finally,  it  swept  past  the 
house  altogether. 

"They  have  gone,"  I  thought,  "for  some 
larger  prey,  but  they  will  surely  come  back.'" 
I  waited  in  vain  for  a  summons,  but  as  our 
friends  did  not  seem  to  be  at  all  apprehensive, 
I  at  last  decided  to  try  to  sleep.  I  spent  a  rest 
less  night,  however,  and  came  down  to  break 
fast  in  a  pensive  mood. 

"What  wras  that  horrible  noise  last  night?" 
I  inquired.  "Was  it  a  riot?" 


24 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

"No,  only  a  wedding  party,"  my  friends 
laughingly  replied. 

"A  wedding  party!  What,  then,  were  the 
blood-curdling  outcries  and  discordant  wails?" 

"Oh,  that  was  their  singing,  and  their  musi 
cal  instruments." 

"Well,"  I  ejaculated  fervently,  "if  that  was 
a  wedding,  may  I  never  hear  a  riot!" 

In  the  weeks  that  followed,  we  had  the  di 
version  of  watching  one  of  the  world's  great 
pageants  as  it  passed  under  our  balcony:  Chi 
nese  dandies  in  silks  and  satins,  with  the  ever- 
present  fan  held  to  protect  their  eyes  from  the 
piercing  rays  of  a  semi-tropical  sun;  ladies  in 
gaily  decorated  sedan  chairs,  and  women  of 
the  poorer  classes  pushing  wheelbarrows  with 
three  or  four  people  in  them ;  regiments  of  tall 
Sikhs  with  the  steel  flashing  in  their  turbans; 
sailors  and  marines  wearing  the  uniforms  of 
many  nations,  ashore  from  the  warships  that 
lay  in  the  river;  lightly  clad  Lascars,  swarthy 
seamen  from  the  merchant  ships.  There  were 
wedding  and  funeral  processions  with  their 
accompanying  din;  one  funeral  procession  took 
an  hour  to  pass,  and  the  glories  of  the  em 
broidered  robes  of  the  Buddhist  and  Taoist 
priests  caused  much  envy  in  the  mind  of  one 
spectator.  And  not  the  least  entertaining  part 


THE  SHADOW  ON  ASIA        25 

of  the  strange  sights  was  a  monkey  in  the 
courtyard  across  the  way.  It  afforded  amuse 
ment  not  only  to  the  little  Portuguese  children 
that  owned  it,  but  to  all  the  neighbours  as  well. 

On  one  hot  morning  a  little  file  of  rickshas 
drew  up  at  the  front  door,  and  there  followed 
the  usual  squabble  of  liberally  paid  coolies  pro 
testing  over  the  fare.  Too  much  engrossed 
with  the  foreign  street  scene  to  pay  much  at 
tention  to  the  arrival  of  a  few  Americans,  I 
did  not  even  turn  my  head  until  I  heard  a 
baby's  voice  at  my  elbow. 

"Auntie,  auntie,  here  we  are!"  and  on  look 
ing  down,  I  found  a  mite,  all  dimples,  tugging 
at  my  skirts. 

Lois  was  right,  there  they  were,  and  the 
proper  things  were  said  and  done — the  things 
one  always  does  to  a  niece  whom  one  has  never 
seen  before,  and  to  the  parents,  whom  one  has 
not  beheld  for  five  years,  and  has  travelled  half 
way  around  the  world  to  visit. 

Behind  these  members  of  the  family  stood  an 
unassuming  woman  clad  in  the  blue  cotton  coat 
and  black  trousers  which  was  the  costume  of 
her  native  town.  She  waited  with  a  bright 
smile  on  her  face,  absorbed  in  the  happiness  of 
others,  and  watching  with  surprise  the  demon 
strative  ways  of  these  strange  foreigners.  At 


26 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

last  we  came  to  ourselves  and  Li  Sao  Tze  was 
presented;  we  liked  her  from  the  first  for  her 
gentle,  modest  ways,  and  for  her  unselfishness. 
It  was  explained  that  while  we  were  in  the 
mountains  she  was  to  serve  as  amah  and  baby's 
nurse. 

The  family  of  Li  Sao  Tze  belonged  to  the 
scholar  class,  the  gentry  we  would  call  it,  but 
they  were  in  reduced  circumstances  and  glad 
to  eke  out  their  income  through  her  labours, 
and  they  would  not  "lose  face"  thereby,  as  she 
was  away  from  home.  Her  husband  was  dead 
and  her  sons  were  "ne'er  do  weels,"  and  we 
thought  that  it  must  be  a  comfort  to  her  to  be 
free  from  them  for  a  season. 

If  Shanghai  had  been  a  wonder  city  to  us,  it 
is  hard  to  imagine  what  it  was  to  Li  Sao  Tze. 
Try  and  realise  for  yourself  what  your  own 
sensations  would  be  if  you  had  lived  in  the  third 
or  fourth  century  in  a  small  country  town  and 
were  taken,  without  warning  or  preparation,  to 
visit  a  modern  city  with  all  its  conveniences 
and  inventions.  Fancy  your  excitement,  and 
how  you  would  open  your  eyes,  and  what  stu 
pid  questions  you  would  ask! 

Not  so  Li  Sao  Tze;  she  kept  her  quiet  way 
unabashed  and  apparently  unimpressed.  Al 
most  without  being  told  she  learned  how  to 


THE  SHADOW  ON  ASIA       27 

turn  on  the  electricity,  and  though  her  only 
light  at  home  had  been  a  feeble  wick  floating 
in  oil,  she  never  changed  her  expression  when 
the  bright  light  flooded  our  rooms.  She  heard 
the  bells  ring  at  the  push  of  a  finger  and  saw 
a  servant  appear  as  if  by  magic.  She  saw  car 
riages  run  along  the  smooth  streets  without 
horses  or  men  to  pull  them,  whereas,  in  her  na 
tive  town,  the  roads  were  full  of  mud-holes, 
and  the  elite  were  carried  in  sedan  chairs,  the 
middle-class  went  on  mules,  and  the  poor 
walked.  Yet  not  one  of  these  new-fangled 
things  disturbed  her  Oriental  calm  or  produced 
any  signs  of  amazement.  Often  I  longed  to 
break  through  that  outer  shell  of  reserve  and 
know  the  thoughts  that  stirred  below  it,  but  my 
lack  of  Chinese  words,  and  her  idea  of  good 
breeding,  always  prevented  such  intercourse. 

Li  Sao  Tze  was  not  stupid  by  any  means; 
she  went  about  her  duties  in  a  quiet,  competent 
way,  very  different  from  the  rougher  country 
women  who  never  could  be  trained  to  be  good 
servants.  It  was  surprising  how  softly  and 
swiftly  she  did  her  work  on  those  little  cramped 
feet  of  hers,  for  they  were  not  over  three  inches 
long.  Every  day  throughout  that  long  sum 
mer  in  the  mountains,  we  would  always  meet 
her  in  the  narrow,  winding  paths,  carrying  lit- 


28  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^mmm^mmmmmm*iim>^im^^^ 

tie  Lois.  In  the  evening  when  we  returned 
home  after  a  picnic  or  a  tea-party  we  would 
find  Li  Sao  Tze  at  the  top  of  the  bungalow 
steps  with  the  child  in  her  arms.  She  would  be 
standing  there  quietly,  looking  over  the  moun 
tains  where  range  was  piled  on  range  towards 
the  glories  of  the  sunset  beyond. 

In  this  case  truly  East  and  West  had  met 
and  mingled,  for  the  baby's  arms  would  be 
twined  tightly  around  Li  Sao  Tze's  neck,  and 
one  needed  only  a  quick  glance  at  Li  Sao  Tze's 
face  to  see  how  she  regarded  her  charge.  It 
was  a  pretty  picture — the  dark  impassive  Ori 
ental  features  and  the  laughing  yellow-haired 
mite,  with  her  pink  cheeks  and  dimples.  We 
would  explain  to  Li  Sao  Tze  that  with  her 
bound  feet  the  baby  was  too  large  and  too 
heavy  for  her  to  carry ;  but  as  soon  as  our  backs 
were  turned  the  little  tyrant  would  say,  "Li 
Sao  Tze!  Bao  me!"  and  that  willing  slave 
would  hasten  to  carry  her.  A  Chinese  woman 
can  never  refuse  a  child  anything,  and  the  ex 
clamation,  "Why,  she  wanted  it!"  is  sufficient 
excuse  for  giving  a  baby  anything  from  a 
banana  to  a  carving  knife. 

In  August  Li  Sao  Tze  came  to  her  mistress 
about  a  strange  lump  which  had  been  troubling 
her  for  some  time.  "Perhaps  Mrs.  Scott  would 


THE  SHADOW  ON  ASIA        29 

tell  Dr.  Scott ;  they  say  he  is  a  very  clever  doc 
tor,  and  he  would  give  her  some  foreign  medi 
cine  that  would  take  it  away?" 

"But,  Li  Sao  Tze,  Dr.  Scott  would  have  to 
see  the  lump  before  he  could  give  you  the  medi 


cine." 


"Oh,  I  never  could  let  him  do  that;  that  is 
not  our  custom!"  Then,  with  a  brighter  look, 
she  continued,  "But  I  will  show  it  to  you,  Mrs. 
Scott,  and  you  can  tell  him  all  about  it." 

It  took  two  months  to  persuade  Li  Sao  Tze 
to  see  the  foreign  doctor.  By  that  time  the 
lump  had  grown  considerably  and  he  sadly 
pronounced  the  word  that  makes  an  American 
turn  sick  and  faint.  He  gently  explained  to 
her  that  if  she  were  operated  on  immediately 
he  might  save  her  life,  otherwise  she  could  not 
live  two  years.  She  took  the  news  very  quietly 
and  with  no  sign  of  fear  or  emotion.  She  said 
she  would  not  be  operated  upon,  for  her  sons 
were  bitterly  anti-foreign  and  would  never  al 
low  it,  even  if  she  would  consent  to  it. 

It  was  a  heavy  cloud  over  our  happiness  to 
feel  that  this  gentle  creature  was  marked  for 
such  a  painful  death.  Such  suffering  is  bad 
enough  in  America,  but  it  is  infinitely  worse 
in  China,  where  the  sick  have  no  pity  shown  to 


30 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

^^^™*™"^M^^*"^M*™™*"^^^^^^^™*^MMM'*"^"^^*'™^™'^MM'^^^^^™™^^™^M^^'*'*'""M™I 

them,  and  the  native  quacks  put  the  sufferer 
to  horrid  torture  by  way  of  treatment. 

We  returned  with  sad  hearts  to  the  inland 
station.  We  knew  that  when  we  arrived  Li 
Sao  Tze's  sons  would  not  permit  her  to  remain 
as  amah  any  longer,  much  as  she  would  have 
liked  to  do  so.  She  had  shown  strange  con 
fidence  in  being  willing  to  go  away  with  us  at 
all,  and  had  not  even  taken  some  earth  with 
her  from  her  native  town,  as  the  other  amah 
had  done,  to  mix  in  her  tea  to  keep  her  from 
homesickness  and  the  dangerous  feng  shui 
(evil  spirits)  of  a  strange  place.  When  we 
reached  our  destination  it  turned  out  as  we  had 
feared.  Li  Sao  Tze  was  forced  to  give  up  her 
position;  her  gentle  sway  was  over,  and  then 
began  a  reign  of  terror  for  us  under  Weh  Sao 
Tze,  the  Militant. 

Li  Sao  Tze  continued  to  come  to  do  our  sew 
ing,  and  we  saw  her  nearly  every  day.  Very 
shocked  was  she  over  Weh  Sao  Tze's  rough 
ways,  and  she  would  reprimand  her  for  her 
coarse  language  to  the  children.  She  came 
regularly  to  the  women's  meetings,  and  would 
repeat  the  verses  so  sweetly  and  so  understand- 
ingly  that  her  teachers  were  sure  she  was  a 
true  Christian  in  her  heart,  though  she  dared 
not  admit  it  on  account  of  the  harsh  attitude  of 


THE  SHADOW  ON  ASIA        31 

her  sons.  Of  all  the  hymns  she  liked  best  to 
sing  "Jesus  Loves  Me."  "For  it  rests  my 
heart,"  she  said.  Poor  Li  Sao  Tze!  It  might 
well  rest  her  heart,  for  very  little  love  had  she 
known  from  the  day  she  was  born  "only  an  un 
welcome  girl"  up  to  this  time  when  her  sons 
grudged  even  food  to  her.  Over  her  cradle 
had  been  sung  the  usual  Chinese  lullaby, 

If  a  boy  is  born,  in  a  downy  bed 

Let  him  be  wrapped  in  purple  and  red; 

Apparel  bright  and  jewels  bring 

For  the  noble  child  who  will  serve  the  king. 

If  a  girl  is  born,  in  coarse  cloth  wound, 

With  a  tile  for  a  toy,  let  her  lie  on  the  ground ; 

In  her  bread  or  her  beer,  be  her  praise  or  her  blame, 

And  let  her  not  sully  her  parents'  good  name. 

Yet  Li  Sao  Tze's  lot  was  only  the  common 
one  of  Chinese  women.  One  day  she  failed 
to  appear  at  the  Women's  Class,  or  for  the 
sewing.  When  she  had  been  absent  for  two 
or  three  days,  Mrs.  Scott  inquired  about  her 
from  a  neighbour  who  informed  her  that  Li 
Sao  Tze  was  ill.  She  hastened  to  see  her  and 
found  the  poor  woman  so  very  ill  that  she  sent 
immediately  for  the  foreign  doctor,  who  pro 
nounced  the  malady  to  be  typhoid  fever.  He 
prescribed  some  remedies  and  tried  to  persuade 
Li  Sao  Tze's  sons  to  take  her  to  the  foreign 


32 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

hospital,  where  she  could  have  proper  treat 
ment,  but  they  would  not  listen  to  him  and,  as 
soon  as  his  back  was  turned,  threw  the  medi 
cine  out  and  called  in  a  native  quack. 

Daily  the  foreigners  visited  the  wretched 
hovel  which  Li  Sao  Tze  called  home,  bringing 
soup  and  medicine.  They  always  found  the 
house  filled  with  a  crowd  of  curious  neighbours 
talking  at  the  top  of  their  lungs,  and  each  one 
suggesting  some  peculiar  or  deadly  mixture — 
a  truly  restful  atmosphere  for  a  fever  patient. 
Li  Sao  Tze  bore  it  all  with  her  usual  patience 
but  grew  gradually  weaker.  At  length  one 
night  she  was  very  much  worse  and  one  of  her 
sons  climbed  on  the  roof  of  the  house,  while 
the  other  went  out  on  the  mountain  side  to 
represent  her  spirit.  The  son  on  the  roof 
would  call  to  the  spirit  on  the  mountain  to  re 
turn,  and  the  son  on  the  mountain  would  cry  in 
a  weird  falsetto,  "Coming,  coming!"  and  all  the 
while  Li  Sao  Tze  lay  below  and  listened. 

The  next  day  Li  Sao  Tze's  mistress  found 
her  excited  out  of  her  former  calm.  Amidst  the 
noise  and  confusion  the  sufferer  clutched  her 
friend's  hand  and  whispered  that  her  sons 
thought  that  she  was  going  to  die  and  so  they 
had  threatened  to  carry  her  out  on  the  moun 
tain  side,  as  her  spirit  would  haunt  them  if 


AUTUMX    SHADOWS    OK    AX    ANCIENT   ROAD 


THE  ROAD  TO  FENG  TI  FU, 
THE  CITY  THAT  THOSE  WHO 
ARE  FAR  AWAY  LOVE 


THE  SHADOW  ON  ASIA        33 

she  died  in  the  house.  Mrs.  Scott  knew  that  if 
they  did  this  she  would  probably  be  torn 
in  pieces  by  wild  dogs.  She  did  her  best  to 
reassure  Li  Sao  Tze,  but  there  was  nothing 
which  she  could  do  to  prevent  such  cruelty,  for 
the  sons  had  absolute  power,  and  could  have 
caused  the  death  of  the  foreigners  if  they  had 
interfered  with  their  plans.  Mrs.  Scott  came 
home  heavy-hearted.  I  wonder  if  any  one 
would  blame  her  for  failing  to  see  any  happi 
ness  in  the  Taoist  religion  on  that  day? 

The  suspense  continued  for  several  days, 
and  as  we  lay  on  our  comfortable  beds  at  night 
listening  to  the  shrill  autumn  wind  howling 
down  the  hillside,  we  were  haunted  by  thoughts 
of  the  awful  fate  hanging  over  our  gentle  Li 
Sao  Tze.  We  would  shiver  to  think  that  at 
that  very  moment  she  might  be  out  in  the  cold 
alone.  Fortunately  she  rallied  towards  the  last, 
and  then  passed  away  suddenly  before  her  sons 
could  execute  their  designs.  The  Christian 
ceremony  so  well  suited  to  Li  Sao  Tze's  quiet 
spirit  was  not  permitted ;  instead,  the  wild  cry 
of  the  hired  mourners,  the  feasting,  the  burning 
of  paper  money,  and  other  rites  of  a  Chinese 
funeral  were  her  lot.  But  we  drew  a  sigh  of  re 
lief  that  her  heart  was  rested  at  last  and  freed 
from  further  sufferings. 


34 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^r 

Now  that  the  long  spring  evenings  have 
come,  Li  Sao  Tze's  daughter-in-law  suddenly 
stops  in  the  middle  of  her  gossiping  with  the 
other  women  of  the  courtyard  and  says  with  a 
laugh,  "Well,  I  must  be  off  to  wail  a  wail  or 
two  on  my  mother-in-law's  grave."  With  a 
bowl  of  food  in  her  hand  for  the  departed  spir 
it,  she  goes  out  on  the  mountain  side  where  Li 
Sao  Tze  sleeps,  and  makes  the  soft  spring 
night  hideous  with  those  blood-curdling  wails 
so  heartrending  to  a  stranger,  until  he  realises 
that  such  mourning  is  purely  perfunctory.  In 
China  comedy  and  tragedy  walk  ever  hand  in 
hand. 


II 

WEH  SAO  TZE  THE  MILITANT 

ONE  beautiful  afternoon  in  late  October 
the  tiny  living-room  of  our  Chinese  house 
was  flooded  with  sunshine  which  touched  the 
soft  red-stained  walls  and  the  vases  of  gay 
chrysanthemums  that  stood  in  every  nook  and 
corner.  Through  the  casement  window  other 
chrysanthemums  shyly  peeped,  as  if  standing 
on  tiptoe  in  their  garden  bed,  full  of  curiosity 
to  see  what  their  comrades  were  doing  within. 

After  a  two  weeks'  trip  in  a  cramped  house 
boat,  these  surroundings  seemed  spacious  in 
deed,  so  in  deep  content  with  our  new  environ 
ment,  we  sank  into  the  comfortable  armchairs. 
Then  suddenly  our  Eden  was  invaded;  we 
heard  the  clump,  clump  of  a  springless  bound- 
foot  in  the  courtyard  outside,  the  bang  of  a 
door,  and  then  the  voice  of  our  hostess  saying, 

"Weh  Sao  Tze,  this  is  my  mother-in-law 
and  my  sister-in-law  from  America." 

On  looking  up  I  beheld  the  tallest,  gauntest 
Chinese  woman  I  have  ever  seen,  making  deep 

35 


36 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

ceremonial  bows  before  us.  Now  mothers-in- 
law  are  held  in  great  honour  in  China,  but  even 
in  her  desire  to  do  respect  to  the  aged  foreign 
lady,  Weh  Sao  Tze  could  not  repress  her  con 
sternation. 

"Cannot  they  speak  one  word,  not  one  little 
word?"  she  asked. 

The  pity  and  contempt  in  her  voice  needed 
no  interpreter,  though  her  language  might. 
All  our  little  store  of  learning  seemed  to  be 
stripped  from  us,  and  for  the  moment  this 
crude  woman  was  a  sage  compared  to  our 
selves.  Having  once  heard  Chinese  spoken, 
one  forever  after  holds  any  person  in  venera 
tion  who  has  mastered  its  intricacies — no  mat 
ter  if  that  individual,  like  Weh  Sao  Tze,  had 
been  born  to  it. 

All  this  time  Weh  Sao  Tze  was  bowing  be 
fore  us  like  an  automaton,  and  in  her  awkward 
ness  she  apparently  filled  the  tiny  room.  She 
had  attempted  to  freshen  her  blue  coat  and 
untidy  hair  to  do  honour  to  the  foreign  ladies, 
but  her  unkemptness  beggared  description. 

After  the  usual  polite  question  to  the  moth 
er-in-law  as  to  her  honourable  age,  the  excla 
mation,  "Why,  I  thought  you  were  a  great 
deal  older !"  was  in  order.  Then  the  names  and 
ages  of  the  lady's  sons  were  investigated  and 


WEH  SAO  TZE  37 

commented  on,  and  congratulation  given  upon 
her  "great  happiness."  At  last  Weh  Sao  Tze's 
hostess  gave  her  a  decided  hint  to  withdraw, 
and  still  shaking  her  head  and  muttering  be 
low  her  breath,  "They  can't  speak  a  word,  not 
a  single  word,"  she  left  us. 

Immediately  on  Weh  Sao  Tze's  disappear 
ance  the  room  seemed  to  regain  its  normal  size, 
and  we  drew  a  sigh  of  relief  to  think  that,  for 
the  time  at  least,  the  ornaments  were  intact. 
Turning  to  my  sister-in-law  with  deep  feeling, 
I  exclaimed,  "Who  is  Weh  Sao  Tze,  and  where 
did  you  collect  such  a  wild  specimen?" 

Laughingly  she  replied,  "You  ought  to  have 
seen  her  when  she  was  first  caught — fresh  from 
the  country.  She  is  to  be  our  amah  this  win 
ter." 

"That's  a  pity,"  I  murmured.  "What  a 
suffragette  she  would  make ;  everything  would 
have  to  give  way  before  her  convictions." 

"Yes,  she  is  really  the  man  of  the  family, 
and  manages  her  husband  and  sons  like  a  gen 
eral.  It  is  hard  for  us  to  realise  what  heathen 
ism  really  is  until  we  encounter  people  like  her. 
She  had  no  idea  of  the  difference  between 
right  and  wrong;  she  informed  me  quite  frank 
ly,  in  fact,  that  the  only  harm  in  lying  was  in 
being  found  out.  She  has  had  twenty  children, 


38 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

but  only  three  are  with  her.  In  a  famine  year 
she  left  one  baby  girl  under  a  tree  to  die  of  ex 
posure  and  another  one  she  sold  for  a  coat. 
She  told  me  all  this  as  though  it  was  an  every 
day  occurrence,  as,  alas,  it  is  in  this  city !  She 
was  quite  surprised  when  I  exclaimed  in  my 
horror  over  her  tale. 

"But  in  the  last  two  years  she  has  seen  a 
great  light  and  is  struggling  hard  to  overcome 
her  fearful  gusts  of  temper  and  other  vices," 
my  sister-in-law  continued.  "You  would  re 
spect  her  more  if  you  knew  her  temptations. 
She  was  admitted  to  the  church  this  autumn 
in  the  hope  that  its  support  would  be  of  help." 

"I  can  easily  see  that  life  would  never  be 
monotonous  in  Weh  Sao  Tze's  vicinity,"  I  re 
plied.  And  it  never  was. 

It  was  Christmas  time  before  Weh  Sao  Tze 
really  mastered  the  rudiments  of  housework; 
by  that  day  she  had  learned  the  surprising  facts 
that  sheets  belonged  next  to  the  mattress  and 
not  on  top  of  the  spread,  that  even  husband 
and  wife  might  not  take  a  bath  in  the  same 
water  and,  more  astonishing  yet,  that  the  dish 
pan  was  not  the  usual  place  to  brush  one's 
teeth.  Words  fail  me  to  tell  of  the  peace  and 
quiet  that  descended  upon  us  at  night  when 
she  had  returned  to  the  bosom  of  her  own  f  am- 


WEH  SAO  TZE  39 

ily.  Often  I  wondered  if  her  husband  enjoyed 
the  blessed  quiet  of  the  day  as  we  did  the  still 
ness  of  the  night. 

Christmas  was  to  be  a  gala-day  for  the  Chris 
tians  and  a  feast  was  to  be  served  for  them  in 
the  new  foreign  house.  The  Boys'  School  had 
prepared  an  entertainment  for  the  evening 
which  was  considered  the  social  event  of  the 
winter,  as  the  head  official  and  his  wife  were 
invited  and  tickets  were  in  great  demand. 

Great  was  Weh  Sao  Tze's  excitement.  She 
had  already  begun  to  have  more  regard  for 
her  personal  appearance;  fewer  straws  from 
her  rough  bed  were  to  be  seen  sticking  to  her 
hair,  and  her  coat  was  evidently  washed  at  least 
once  a  month,  but  for  Christmas  day  she  really 
outshone  herself.  She  embroidered  a  new  hat 
and  gay  shoes,  washed  and  starched  her  coat, 
and  really  was  an  example  of  what  soap  and  a 
little — a  very  little — godliness  can  do.  From 
that  day  forward  it  was  interesting  to  see  Weh 
Sao  Tze  cleansed  and  brushed,  with  her  Bible 
and  hymn-book  tied  up  in  a  gaily  coloured 
handkerchief,  and  her  two  boys,  also  much 
brushed  and  washed,  beside  her  on  the  way  to 
church. 

One  of  the  duties  of  the  amah  was  to  light 
our  bedroom  fires  before  we  arose  in  the  morn- 


40 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^j 

ings.  It  seemed  to  me  that  I  had  just  fallen 
asleep  on  Christmas  Eve,  when  I  heard  a  rat 
tle  and  bang  at  the  stove  and  the  sound  of  a 
roaring  fire  just  built.  The  house  was  dark, 
and  there  was  not  a  sign  of  dawn,  but  I  had  no 
Chinese  words  in  which  to  demand  an  explana 
tion;  so  I  lay  still  awaiting  developments.  Soon 
from  the  distance  I  heard  the  master  of  the 
house  approaching,  and  I  listened  to  him  or 
dering  Weh  Sao  Tze  away  in  no  uncertain 
tones.  On  inquiry  I  found  that  it  was  only 
half-past  two,  but  Weh  Sao  Tze  had  no  clock, 
and  in  her  zeal  had  decided  that  now  it  must 
be  morning.  Three  different  times  did  sh 
start  those  fires,  until  at  last  in  self-defence,  a 
six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  we  let  her  have  her 
way.  Do  you  wonder  that  some  people  think 
that  by  sheer  perseverance  the  East  will  con 
quer  the  West? 

The  day  passed  off  with  much  festivitye  The 
boys  outdid  themselves  as  shepherds  and  wise- 
men;  the  kids,  which  they  carried  in  lieu  of 
lambs,  bleated  plaintively  the  while,  giving  a 
touch  of  realism  to  the  scene.  That  evening, 
weary  of  our  part  as  hosts,  we  slipped  off  our 
best  Chinese  coats  and  our  formal  bows,  and 
looked  forward  to  a  refreshing  sleep.  Alas, 
and  alack,  it  was  not  to  be,  for  our  picturesque 


THE  BOYS   FROM  THE   FENG  TI   FU  SCHOOL  LIFT  THEIR 
SKIKTS  DAINTILY  TO  AVOID  THE  MUD  OF  THE  ROUGHLY 
PAVED  STREET  AS  THEY   MARCH   TO   CHURCH 


WEH  SAO  TZE 41 

thatched  roof  caught  fire  from  a  defective 
stovepipe,  and  Christmas  night  was  spent  in 
watching  our  precious  belongings  ascend  in  the 
form  of  smoke. 

Weh  Sao  Tze  performed  wonderful  feats  of 
valour  in  these  exciting  hours.  She  picked  up 
treasures  of  silver  and  jewelry  in  fire-menaced 
rooms  and  carried  them  to  their  rightful  own 
ers,  which  was  a  harder  strain  on  her  than  sav 
ing  them.  The  report  circulated  that  she  had 
actually  carried  a  bureau  from  one  room  to  an 
other;  and,  last  but  not  least,  she  found  the 
table  boy  looting  the  aforesaid  bureau,  duly 
reported  him,  and  he  was  forthwith  dismissed. 
For  days  afterwards  her  star  was  decidedly  in 
the  ascendant ;  the  Chinese  took  pleasure  in  re 
peating  all  the  slight  symptoms  of  honesty  ever 
observed  in  her  family,  and  her  praise  was  in 
everybody's  mouth. 

My  sister-in-law  said  to  me  in  triumph, 
"What  if  she  is  awkward?  She  moved  my  bu 


reau." 


And  I  was  forced  to  reply,  "Strength  goes 
further  than  gracefulness  when  it  comes  to 
moving  bureaus.  I'm  glad  she  has  muscle,  for 
I  am  afraid  her  manners  will  always  lack  the 
repose  that  marked  the  Revere,  or  was  it  the 
De  Vere  family?" 


42 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

^•••'•^••••^••••'••••••••'•••"••••'•''••'••'^^••••'''•••'^••^•''•'•'•'''•''^•'''H 

Sad  to  relate,  however,  toward  spring  Weh 
Sao  Tze's  star  began  to  wane.  Mr.  Dooley 
wisely  maintains  that  a  "hero  should  be  shot  in 
the  act."  Rumours  of  petty  thefts  came  from 
time  to  time,  but  it  was  her  temper  that 
brought  matters  to  a  climax.  Her  disposition 
and  that  of  the  new  table  boy  were  not  compat 
ible,  and  that  is  putting  the  case  mildly.  Weh 
Sao  Tze  realised  her  failing  and  really  tried 
very  hard  to  overcome  it,  but  day  by  day  the 
struggle  grew  more  severe,  and  her  angry  voice 
could  be  heard  over  the  entire  compound  and 
down  the  street.  At  length,  after  having  given 
her  about  a  dozen  last  chances,  the  crisis  came 
and  she  was  dismissed.  She  packed  her  things 
and  withdrew  stormily,  but  as  she  left,  she 
turned  to  the  master  of  the  house  and  said  in  a 
queer,  stifled  tone, 

"Doctor  Scott,  you  will  always  look  after  my 
boys,  will  you  not?" 

A  little  puzzled  by  the  sudden  change  of 
manner,  the  master  promised  and  she  departed. 

Soon  the  table  boy  had  his  dismissal,  too,  but 
before  he  left  all  the  silver  had  to  be  counted. 
According  to  Chinese  custom,  he  had  been  put 
in  charge  of  the  dining-room,  and  if  anything 
were  lacking  he  was  responsible  and  was  re 
quired  to  replace  the  missing  article.  Knives, 


WEH  SAO  TZE 43 

forks,  and  spoons  were  carefully  gone  over, 
and  eight  solid  silver  forks  were  not  to  be 
found.  The  boy  asked  permission  to  search 
the  premises,  which  was  granted,  and  with  the 
cook  and  the  gatekeeper  as  witnesses,  he  start 
ed  his  quest.  First  the  compound  was  examined 
with  no  result;  then  the  house,  and  in  a  stove 
stored  in  the  attic,  close  to  the  door  of  Weh  Sao 
Tze's  room,  the  forks  were  found  at  last. 

Their  disappearance  will  always  be  a  mys 
tery.  The  boy  may  have  taken  them  and  put 
them  there  to  throw  suspicion  on  Weh  Sao  Tze, 
or  she  may  have  done  it  to  get  the  boy  into 
trouble,  or  have  hidden  them  there  in  the  hope 
that  she  herself  might  some  day  have  a  chance 
to  smuggle  them  out  of  the  house.  Even  those 
familiar  with  involved  Chinese  reasoning  have 
had  to  give  up  this  riddle.  The  news  of  the 
theft  and  the  subsequent  find  spread  like  wild 
fire,  and  was  soon  known  throughout  the  city. 

That  evening  was  the  first  peaceful  time  in 
weeks;  only  Solomon,  who  had  some  experi 
ence  with  women's  tempers,  or  any  soldier  who 
has  been  within  sound  of  the  incessant  firing  of 
big  guns,  can  appreciate  what  the  surcease 
meant. 

About  nine  o'clock,  however,  Weh  Sao  Tze's 
little  boy  appeared  and  asked  the  doctor  to  go 


44 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

immediately,  as  his  mother  was  very  ill.  The 
doctor  was  appalled,  for  he  guessed  in  a  mo 
ment  what  it  meant.  She  had  taken  opium  "to 
save  her  face,"  and  to  throw  the  blame  on  our 
selves  or  on  the  table  boy. 

It  was  a  night  of  terrible  suspense.  The 
thought  that  any  human  being  should  come  to 
such  a  pass  through  us  made  us  heart-sick.  Be 
sides  which  it  was  famine  year,  and  anti- foreign 
feeling  was  always  smouldering,  ready  to  leap 
forth  and  annihilate  us  at  any  moment. 
Through  the  long  hours  the  doctor  worked  des 
perately.  He  found  Weh  Sao  Tze  had  taken  a 
large  dose,  though  she  denied  it,  and  only  to 
wards  morning  did  he  see  signs  of  hope.  At 
breakfast  time  he  returned  utterly  exhausted, 
leaving  Weh  Sao  Tze  sufficiently  recovered  to 
be  treated  by  his  assistant. 

The  most  amazing  thing  to  us  was  to  find 
that  for  once  Chinese  opinion  was  with  the  for 
eigner.  Usually  when  a  person  endeavours  to 
commit  suicide,  the  other  person  involved  is 
blamed  whether  guilty  or  not,  but  this  time  all 
the  street  condemned  Weh  Sao  Tze.  The 
Christians  among  them  shook  their  heads  in 
horror  and  said : 

"We  have  never  heard  of  a  Christian  trying 
to  kill  herself  before." 


WEH  SAO  TZE 45 

Now  arose  the  question  as  to  how  to  disci 
pline  Weh  Sao  Tze.  The  church  could  not 
overlook  such  unseemly  conduct  on  the  part  of 
a  member,  yet  the  leaders  feared  that  if  she 
were  punished,  with  the  weight  of  public  opin 
ion  against  her,  she  might  again  seek  to  destroy 
herself.  It  was  finally  decided  to  suspend  her 
from  membership  for  a  few  months.  At  the 
next  communion  service  a  very  chastened  Weh 
Sao  Tze  attended;  she  could  not,  of  course, 
take  part  in  the  Sacrament,  but  when  the  con 
gregation  bowed  their  heads  for  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  she  whispered  to  her  old  mistress  who 
knelt  beside  her, 

"Mrs.  Scott,  may  I  repeat  'Our  Father,'  if 
I  say  it  very,  very  softly?" 

So  one  more  penitent  added  her  voice  to  the 
thousands  who  through  the  ages  have  sought 
forgiveness.  Such  was  Weh  Sao  Tze;  surely 
she  was  "ower  bad  for  blessing,  and  ower  gude 
for  banning,"  like  Rob  Roy. 


Ill 

MR.  CHANG  OF  THE  CRYSTAL  SPRING 
VILLAGE 

A  GREY  evening  had  settled  on  the  vil 
lage  of  the  Crystal  Spring.  There  had 
been  a  soft  drizzle  all  day  and  even  the  Crystal 
Spring  lay  deep  in  mud  and  so  belied  its  name. 
There  was,  in  fact,  nothing  much  but  mud  to 
be  seen  from  the  narrow  streets  where  the  little 
pools  of  yellowed  water  stood  to  the  walls  of 
the  houses  that  were  plainly  built  of  no  other 
material  than  mud.  And  looking  out  into  the 
twilight  over  the  fields,  the  country,  also,  pre 
sented  the  same  monotonous,  muddy-brown 
tint. 

Though  the  Chinese  are  a  good  deal  like 
hens  in  their  attitude  of  mind  towards  water  in 
general  and  rain  in  particular,  this  evening  the 
weather  had  failed  to  keep  them  indoors,  for 
had  not  the  village  schoolmaster  promised  to 
tell  them  many  wonderful  things  of  the  golden 
age  of  China  when  the  sages  walked  the  land 
and  were  able  to  converse,  not  only  with  human 

46 


MR.  CHANG  47 

beings,  but  with  the  fairy  folk?  As  every  in 
telligent  person  knows,  in  those  extraordinary 
days  the  animals  talked  not  only  with  each 
other,  but  with  men  and  women.  The  village 
necromancer  claimed  that  they  did  it  yet,  and 
he  told  how  a  fox  had  come  into  a  lonely  house 
not  many  li  away  and,  turning  itself  into  a  cry 
ing  child,  wrought  much  mischief  until  they 
called  him  in  and  he  frightened  the  fox  away. 
To  the  initiated,  the  moral  of  this  tale  is  plain; 
it  behooved  one  to  keep  on  good  terms  with  the 
necromancer,  and  to  undertake  nothing  with 
out  his  counsel. 

To-night  the  schoolmaster  looked  over  his 
little  audience  of  men  and  boys,  wondering 
which  story  to  tell  them.  They  waited  in  a  re 
spectful  silence,  for  he  had  taken  his  degree, 
and  the  only  person  in  the  village  who  did  not 
stand  in  awe  of  him  was  his  wife.  If  Mr.  Chang 
had  known  Greek,  his  sympathy  would  have 
been  drawn  to  Socrates  and  his  home  life. 

Slowly  he  began :  " -ZEons  ago,  almost  at  the 
dawning  of  our  golden  age,  there  lived  on  the 
edge  of  a  lotus  stream  a  mussel  contented  and 
happy.  One  spring  morning  when  the  apricots 
were  in  bloom,  tempted  by  the  beauty  of  the 
day,  he  went  out  on  the  river  bank  to  sun  him 
self.  A  bittern,  which  was  passing  by,  per- 


48 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

ceived  the  mussel,  and  with  none  of  those  cour 
teous  ceremonies  customary  in  polite  society, 
pecked  at  the  wary  shellfish.  The  mussel,  real 
ising  that  he  who  hesitates  is  lost,  wasted  no 
time  but  nipped  the  bird's  beak.  The  bittern, 
surprised  and  frightened,  exclaimed,  'If  you 
do  not  let  me  go  to-day,  and  if  you  refuse  to  let 
me  go  to-morrow,  there  will  be  a  dead  mussel.' 
His  would-be  victim  rejoined,  'If  I  stay  in 
doors  to-day,  and  if  I  don't  come  out  to-mor 
row,  there  surely  will  be  a  dead  bittern!' ' 

Suddenly  at  this  climax  a  wild  face  was 
thrust  into  the  door  of  the  schoolroom  and  an 
excited  voice  shouted,  "There  is  a  foreign  devil 
arrived  at  the  inn,  and  you  had  better  all  be 
quick,  for  we  think  he  is  going  to  undress !" 

Magic  surely  cannot  have  disappeared  from 
China ;  the  speed  with  which  the  room  was  emp 
tied  of  all  but  the  schoolmaster  and  the  necro 
mancer  was  simply  miraculous.  The  necro 
mancer  felt  it  incumbent  on  his  dignity  to  move 
more  slowly;  the  schoolmaster,  who  was  at 
heart  a  gentelman,  turned  towards  his  home. 
He  would  call  later  with  ceremony  when  the 
rude  villagers  had  left.  Curiosity  soon  got  the 
better  of  the  necromancer,  however,  and  mur 
muring  to  himself,  "I  have  heard  it  said  that 
these  foreigners  have  a  hole  in  their  chest 


MR.  CHANG 49 

through  which  a  stick  is  run  by  which  they  are 
carried  by  coolies ;  I  must  see  if  it  is  true,"  he 
turned  and  hurried  to  the  inn. 

The  scene  at  the  inn  was  amusing  enough; 
the  doors  and  windows  were  full  of  heads,  and 
those  who  had  a  few  cash  with  which  to  buy  tea 
had  even  entered  the  house  itself  and  were 
drinking,  while  their  eyes  seemed  glued  on  the 
unfortunate  foreigner.  The  inn  was  a  poor 
place ;  the  only  thing  which  could  be  said  in  its 
favour  was  that  it  was  dry.  It  consisted  of  one 
long  room  where  all  the  guests  ate,  dressed,  and 
slept.  At  one  end  was  a  fire  of  stalks  burning ; 
there  was  no  chimney  for  the  smoke  to  escape, 
so  the  foreigner  sat  beside  the  blaze  with  the 
tears  running  down  his  face  from  the  suffocat 
ing  smoke,  trying  in  vain  to  get  dry.  He  had 
removed  his  coat,  which  was  dripping  wet,  and 
beside  him  on  the  floor  lay  a  bicycle  covered 
with  the  all-prevailing  mud. 

Even  the  man's  sense  of  humour  had  been  al 
most  washed  away,  but  when  he  saw  the  amaze 
ment  on  every  countenance  as  he  started  to 
clean  his  wheel,  he  could  not  repress  a  smile. 
He  had  been  forced  to  walk  a  long  distance  on 
account  of  the  rain,  and  the  consequence  was 
that  none  of  the  Chinese  knew  what  the  bicy 
cle  was  for,  so  they  kept  at  a  safe  distance  from 


50 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

it.  As  he  spun  each  wheel  around  thought 
fully,  the  eyes  of  the  crowd  grew  as  large  as 
saucers.  One  of  them  whispered,  "It's  a  new 
kind  of  gun!"  Some  of  them  put  their  fingers 
in  their  ears  expecting  a  loud  report;  others 
withdrew  to  a  still  greater  distance.  Nothing 
happened,  however,  and  at  that  moment  the 
necromancer  entered  and  speedily  drew  his  own 
conclusions;  this  was  evidently  some  foreign 
magic,  and  it  was  clearly  to  his  advantage  to 
stand  in  with  the  foreigner  and  divide  the 
profits. 

"You  have  come  a  long  road  to-day?"  he 
said,  going  directly  up  to  the  foreigner. 
I     "Yes,"  replied  the  man,  "one  hundred  It" 
(About  thirty  miles.) 

"Ha!  I  was  right,"  thought  the  necroman 
cer.  "It  is  magic  indeed.  No  man  could  walk 
or  be  carried  by  coolies  a  distance  like  that  in 
such  weather." 

So  he  asked  still  another  question,  "Then  the 
coolies  did  not  carry  you  by  means  of  the  pole 
stuck  through  your  chest?" 

The  foreigner  was  puzzled;  then  he  remem 
bered  the  ancient  rumour  about  the  foreigners 
and  replied,  "No,  I  rode  this  wheel." 

The  necromancer  was  dazed,  but  by  this  time 
the  crowd  had  grown  bolder  and  felt  like  ask- 


MR.  CHANG  51 

ing  a  few  questions  on  their  own  account. 
They  drew  closer  in  a  smaller  circle  and  a  per 
fect  volley  of  questions  followed:  "Where  was 
he  from?"  "What  was  his  name ?"  "How  did 
he  button  his  collar?"  "What  was  his  vest 
for?" 

Finally,  weary  of  responding  to  so  much  in 
sistent  curiosity,  and  remembering  his  purpose 
in  coming,  the  stranger  thought  that  it  was  his 
turn  to  lead  the  conversation.  Turning  to  the 
necromancer,  he  said,  "I  have  come  to  your  vil 
lage  to  tell  you  about  one  of  our  sages  that 
lived  many  years  ago."  The  people,  however, 
were  too  interested  in  the  present  to  stop  to 
hear  past  history  and  they  would  not  listen. 

Then  a  bright  idea  struck  the  traveller.  He 
said,  "I  see  that  this  inn  room  is  very  large.  I 
will  ride  this  wheel  around  the  place  for  twenty 
minutes  and  let  you  see  how  it  works,  if  after 
I  have  finished  you  will  promise  to  listen  to  me 
for  twenty  minutes." 

This  proposition  appealed  to  his  audience 
and  a  space  was  quickly  cleared.  Amid  the 
"Ahs!"  and  "Ehs!"  of  the  crowd,  he  mounted 
the  wheel  and  rode  around  and  around  for  a 
long  twenty  minutes ;  then  he  dismounted,  say 
ing,  "Now  it  is  my  turn  to  talk,"  and  he  began 
to  tell  his  story.  True  to  their  bargain,  the 


52 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

Chinese  listened  quietly,  interrupting  only  with 
a  question  now  and  then,  so  that  they  might 
fully  understand. 

After  he  had  concluded  his  story,  a  numher 
of  the  curious  ones  bought  his  tracts  and  copies 
of  the  gospels,  and  one  old  man  asked,  "How 
long  ago  did  you  say  this  good  man  lived?" 

"Over  nineteen  hundred  years  ago,"  the  for 
eigner  replied. 

The  old  man  looked  very  sad.  "And  you  for 
eigners  have  known  this  glad  news  for  nineteen 
hundred  years,  and  have  only  just  come  to  tell 
us  about  it  now!  I  cannot  understand  that." 

Some  of  the  more  intelligent  of  the  group 
lingered  for  a  few  moments,  but  it  was  grow 
ing  late  and  they  at  last  said  a  reluctant  good 
bye.  With  a  weary  sigh  the  foreigner  turned 
to  undress,  when  he  heard  a  quiet  voice  behind 
him  say,  "Good  evening,  honourable  sir,  may 
I  ask  your  revered  name?" 

On  looking  around,  he  beheld  the  village 
teacher,  Mr.  Chang,  making  deep  bows  of 
greeting.  Snatching  his  spectacles  from  his 
eyes  to  show  that  he  knew  the  rules  of  Chinese 
etiquette,  the  stranger  replied,  with  an  equally 
deep  bow,  "My  humble  name  is  Doctor  Scott." 

"May  I  also  inquire  your  lofty  longevity?" 
continued  the  teacher. 


MR.  CHANG 53 

^M"^"**'^^^***"**"^**^"^^^'^^™M^'™™™M^MM^^™^^'^^'^^™M'^"'^^^^*M*''M^'™^*^^ 

"My  years  are  few  and  small;  I  am  only 
forty,"  replied  Dr.  Scott. 

"Ah!"  exclaimed  the  other,  "I  thought  you 
were  a  great  deal  older.  Now  will  you  kindly 
inform  me  the  name  of  your  renowned  coun 
try?" 

"The  name  of  my  country  is  America." 

At  the  word  "America,"  Mr.  Chang's  face 
brightened  visibly.  "Why  that  is  the  country 
of  Washington  and  Lincoln,"  he  said  joyfully. 

Interested  at  once,  Dr.  Scott  invited  him  to 
be  seated,  and  inquired  where  he  had  heard  of 
Washington  and  Lincoln.  The  teacher  eager 
ly  explained  that  when  he  had  gone  to  Nan 
king  to  pass  his  examination  for  his  degree,  he 
had  met  a  foreigner  at  the  door  of  the  examina 
tion  hall  who  had  sold  him  a  book  containing 
the  lives  of  Washington  and  Lincoln. 

"They  were  great  and  good  men.  Could 
you  tell  me  more  about  them  ?"  he  asked. 

Very  gladly  Dr.  Scott  did  so,  and  finished  by 
saying,  "Washington  and  Lincoln  were  true 
lovers  of  freedom  and  of  their  fellowmen,  but 
their  ideas  were  received  from  a  still  greater 
teacher  who  taught  nineteen  hundred  years  ago. 
Let  me  read  you  what  he  says,"  and  draw 
ing  the  Gospel  of  St.  John  from  his  pocket 


54 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

he  read,  "And  ye  shall  know  the  truth  and  the 
truth  shall  make  you  free." 

"Yes,"  said  the  teacher,  "those  are  wise 
words ;  that  is  the  kind  of  freedom  we  need  in 
China.  Will  it  weary  you  too  much  to  tell  me 
about  this  very  wise  man?" 

Delighted  at  this  wonderful  opportunity, 
Dr.  Scott  told  him  about  that  life  which  was  the 
most  perfect  of  all  lives,  and  the  teacher  eager 
ly  drank  in  every  word.  At  length  he  rose  to 
go,  saying  he  would  return  in  the  morning  to 
hear  more.  Sadly  Dr.  Scott  explained  that  he 
had  to  hurry  on  at  daylight  to  see  a  dying 
friend,  but  he  gave  the  teacher  a  book  of  the 
Gospels,  and  promised  to  return  at  some  future 
time. 

It  was  now  late,  and  very  softly  Mr.  Chang 
stole  through  the  deserted  street  and  quietly 
opened  the  door  of  his  rude  home,  hoping  not 
to  disturb  his  sleeping  spouse.  The  hope  was 
vain;  she  had  lain  awake  and  full  of  protest. 
He  was  greeted  with  questions  such  as,  "Where 
in  the  world  have  you  been  ?  A  pretty  hour  this 
to  be  coming  in!  What  will  the  neighbours 
say?" 

"A  good  deal,"  the  poor  teacher  thought, 
"if  they  could  hear  you  talk,"  but  he  wisely  re 
plied,  "I  have  been  to  the  inn  and  talked  to  the 


MR.  CHANG 55 

foreigner,  and  he  told  me  a  most  wonderful 
thing  about  a  sage  who  came  to  earth  to  teach 
us  to  love  everybody — our  neighbours,  and 
even  strangers." 

"Foolish  words  they  were !  Why,  think  what 
a  difference  it  would  make  if  I  should  love 
Wang  Mah!"  and  turning  herself  scornfully 
in  bed,  she  went  soundly  to  sleep. 

What  a  difference  indeed!  His  wife's  daily 
battles  with  Wang  Mah  were  the  scandal  and 
excitement  of  the  whole  village;  combat  was 
waged  from  dawn  to  dewy  eve,  year  in  and 
year  out.  Mrs.  Chang  had  the  sharper  tongue, 
but  Wang  Mah  reviled  more  effectively,  and 
could  scream  louder.  By  a  course  of  watchful 
waiting,  the  former  often  got  in  the  last  word 
when  the  latter  had  screamed  herself  hoarse. 
For  these  women  to  love  one  another  would  be 
restful  and  beautiful  beyond  his  wildest  hope. 

Having  assured  himself  that  his  wife  was 
really  asleep,  Mr.  Chang  sat  down  by  the  little 
flickering  lamp  and  began  to  read  his  new  book. 
Thoughtfully  and  slowly  he  read  it  in  order  to 
comprehend  the  wonderful  story.  Not  once 
did  he  look  up  until  a  faint  streak  of  dawn  re 
minded  him  that  he  must  retire,  if  he  wished 
any  peace  for  the  next  fortnight. 

It  was  a  very  much  puzzled  necromancer 


56  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

who  arose  on  the  next  morning,  pondering  over 
the  follies  of  foreigners  in  general  and  this  one 
in  particular;  to  have  perfectly  good  magic  at 
one's  command  and  fail  to  make  a  profit  from 
it,  was  worse  than  foolish ;  it  was  madness. 

Mrs.  Chang,  too,  was  very  much  disturbed 
by  the  foreigner's  visit.  Surely  he  had  be 
witched  her  husband.  Loud  was  her  lamenting 
over  the  wasted  oil;  the  long  day  through  she 
could  talk  and  think  of  nothing  else.  But  all 
day  long  the  teacher  did  not  hear  her,  for  his 
thoughts  were  elsewhere  following  his  newly 
found  Master  through  the  fields  of  Galilee,  and 
ever  in  his  ears  rang  the  words,  "And  ye  shall 
know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make  you 
free." 


IV 

PERE  PERRIN 

f  I  DECREE  ravens  flew  overhead,  their  black 
•*•  wings  casting  a  sinister  shadow  over  the 
land;  suddenly,  with  hoarse  croaks,  they 
wheeled  and  descended  on  a  brown  field  which 
showed  not  even  a  blade  of  grass  where  once 
there  had  been  verdant  crops. 

"If  our  friends,  the  ravens,  find  food  to  eat 
in  this  forlorn  country,  it  is  more  than  we  shall 
do,  Pere  Perrin." 

Pere  Perrin  shook  his  head  sadly.  "Now  I 
know  what  'the  abomination  of  desolation' 
means,  Pere  Le  Brun.  I  always  used  to  won 
der  about  it.  Look,  we  are  coming  to  the 
Chang  village ;  we  shall  soon  see  what  our  poor 
children  are  suffering  here." 

Slowly  and  footsore  they  plodded  to  the  lit 
tle  hamlet,  sorrowful  because  of  the  sights  they 
had  seen,  and  the  stories  they  had  heard.  Pere 
Perrin  fingered  his  rosary  and  his  lips  moved 
constantly,  though  no  sound  escaped  them. 

57 


58  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

Pere  Le  Brun  knew  that  he  was  praying  for 
his  flock. 

For  fifty  years  these  two  good  Fathers  had 
lived  in  China;  they  had  studied  at  the  same 
seminary  in  France  and  had  sailed  on  the  same 
ship  to  the  Far  East.  The  result  of  this  daily 
and  hourly  companionship  was  that,  as  Pere 
Le  Brun  used  laughingly  to  say,  "We  even 
think  the  same  thoughts;  we  have  no  need  to 
talk." 

They  had  often  seen  destitution.  Even  in 
good  years,  the  streets  were  full  of  hungry  peo 
ple,  but  in  the  past  summer  there  had  been 
floods  that  broke  all  records,  and  during  the 
winter  came  the  most  appalling  famine  that 
they  had  ever  known.  With  the  February 
cold,  terrible  rumours  reached  them  of  the  con 
ditions  in  their  country  parishes,  so  they  had 
decided  to  make  a  tour  of  inspection  to  see 
what  could  be  done.  The  results  had  confirmed 
their  worst  fears,  and  Pere  Le  Brun  noticed 
that  Pere  Perrin  seemed  to  age  greatly  from 
day  to  day. 

On  the  outskirts  of  the  village  they  met  an 
old  man  in  a  single  ragged  garment ;  his  teeth 
chattered  when  the  cold  wind  struck  him.  At 
first  they  did  not  recognise  him,  but  when  he 
approached  them  and  began  to  speak,  they 


FERE  PERRIN 59 

saw  to  their  consternation  that  it  was  Chang, 
the  head  man  of  the  hamlet,  who  had  been  a 
prosperous,  well-dressed  farmer  when  last  they 
had  seen  him.  Even  in  his  misery  he  did  not 
forget  his  native  courtesy.  "Ah,  good  Fathers, 
are  you  out  in  the  country?"  (It  is  always 
proper  in  China  to  ask  an  obvious  question  by 
way  of  salutation.) 

"Yes,  Mr.  Chang,  we  are  visiting  our  hungry 
sheep.  But  where  are  your  doors  and  windows, 
and  where  are  the  roofs  of  your  houses?" 

"The  hungry  wolf,  Pere  Perrin,  has  come 
and  eaten  them  all,"  he  replied. 

It  was  easy  to  see  that  grim  want  was  stalk 
ing  through  the  village.  A  crowd  of  hungry, 
gaunt  people  soon  gathered,  clad  in  rags,  and 
with  the  look  of  famished  animals.  It  was  a 
subdued  and  orderly  group,  however ;  no  dem 
onstration  of  suffering  was  made,  and  only 
dumb  curiosity  and  wonder  were  shown.  They 
had  been  a  quiet,  respectable  people  in  their 
prosperity,  and  they  were  equally  peaceful  in 
their  adversity.  A  few  scrawny  little  hands 
tugged  at  the  skirts  of  the  Fathers'  gowns,  for 
the  children  remembered  the  sweetmeats  that 
these  friends  always  carried  for  them  at  other 
visits.  The  Fathers  had  not  forgotten  the  little 
ones,  and  they  were  soon  munching  solemnly. 


60  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

Pere  Perrin  turned  again  to  Mr.  Chang.  "I 
see  there  are  no  pigs  or  dogs  in  sight.  Are  they 
all  gone,  and  what  are  you  living  on?" 

"The  scum  from  the  ponds  and  the  bark 
from  the  trees  will  have  to  keep  us  until  next 
harvest,"  was  the  reply. 

The  kindly  priest  groaned,  and  drawing  a 
purse  from  his  gown,  opened  it  and  extracted 
a  few  Mexican  dollars.  "Take  these,  Mr. 
Chang,  and  buy  food  for  the  villagers  and  your 
self.  I  wish  it  were  twice  as  much,  but  it  is  all 
we  have  left  fror"  our  last  remittance.  The 
next  is  not  due  for  another  month." 

The  Chinaman  shook  his  head.  "It's  no  use, 
Pere  Perrin,  it's  no  use ;  there's  no  food  to  be 
bought  nearer  than  the  Fu,  and  we  are  too 
weak  to  walk  there  and  carry  supplies  back. 
Our  buffaloes  are  gone  long  ago." 

Pere  Perrin  sighed,  but  returned  the  purse 
to  his  pocket ;  he  knew  the  man  spoke  truly,  and 
that  he  must  save  his  scanty  store  for  those  it 
could  succour.  He  bade  a  sorrowful  farewell 
to  the  villagers,  and  raising  his  hand  in  blessing, 
turned  and  left  them. 

"My  blessing  was  all  that  I  could  give 
them,"  he  said  to  Pere  Le  Brun  sadly,  as  they 
started  on  their  homeward  way. 

It  was  noon  when  they  left  the  Chang  vil- 


FERE  PERRIN  61 

lage,  and  they  did  not  reach  the  Fu  until  late 
in  the  evening.  They  had  taken  no  food,  for 
there  was  none  to  buy.  Hungry,  therefore, 
and  almost  fainting,  they  stumbled  along  the 
deep  ruts  of  the  narrow  roads,  and  it  was  with 
much  relief  that  at  last  they  saw  the  little 
twinkling  lights  of  the  distant  city.  When  they 
reached  their  humble  Chinese  house,  Pere  Per- 
rin  refused  to  eat. 

"I  fast  to-night  with  my  starving  people," 
he  replied  to  his  faithful  servant  Lao  Liu,  when 
he  urged  the  evening  bowl  of  rice  upon  the  ex 
hausted  Father. 

After  a  few  minute's'  rest,  Pere  Perrin  quiet 
ly  arose  and  went  into  the  tiny  chapel.  All  the 
long  hours  of  that  night  he  spent  in  prayer  for 
the  famished  multitudes. 

"I  simply  had  to  say  my  paternosters,  for  if 
ever  my  children  need  their  daily  bread  it  is  to 
day,"  explained  Pere  Perrin  as  the  two  Fath 
ers  lingered  a  little  longer  than  usual  over  their 
frugal  breakfast. 

[While  he  was  speaking  Lao  Liu  entered  and 
Handed  Pere  Perrin  a  note,  stating  that  it  had 
just  come  by  special  messenger  from  Feng  Ti 
Fu.  Pere  Perrin  opened  the  letter  and  read  it 
aloud — the  two  old  men  had  no  secrets  from 
each  other.  It  ran  as  follows : 


62 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

Feng  Ti  Fu. 
My  dear  Pere  Perrin, 

Our  friends  in  America  have  sent  my  colleagues  and 
myself  money  for  famine  relief  work;  the  American 
Red  Cross  Society  has  also  put  supplies  at  our  disposal. 
On  behalf  of  our  station  and  the  Famine  Relief  Com 
mittee,  I  am  sending  you  five  hundred  dollars  for  use 
in  your  district;  later  I  hope  to  increase  the  amount. 
You  and  I  realize,  Pere  Perrin,  that  hunger  knows  no 
creed.  With  kindest  regards  for  Pere  Le  Brun  and 
yourself, 

Sincerely  yours, 


Pere  Perrin  laid  the  letter  down  and  for  a 
moment  could  not  speak.  Then  he  said,  "The 
bon  Dieu  never  forgets  us,  Pere  Le  Brun; 
surely  he  has  prompted  tljis  thought  of  the  be 
nevolent  American  doctor.  I  cannot  help  feel 
ing  that  he  must  love  our  friend  especiallj 
dearly,  for  he  puts  sp  many  kinds  things  into 
his  heart  to  do.  Do  you  remember  that  two 
years  ago,  when  the  doctor  operated  on  my 
eyes,  that  he  took  me  into  his  own  house  be 
cause  there  was  no  room  in  the  hospital?  And 
what  tender  care  both  he  and  his  wife  gave  me ! 
I  have  changed  my  mind  a  little  about  heretics 
since  I  knew  them.  It  may  be,  Pere  Le  Brun, 
that  when  at  last  we  reach  heaven's  high  gate 
the  kind  Americans  will  speak  a  word  for  us  to 
good  St.  Peter." 

There  was  little  time  for  talk,  however,  with 


FERE  PERRIN 63 

the  ready  money  at  hand  and  the  poor  dying  at 
their  doors.  With  all  his  gentle  ways  Pere 
Perrin  had  a  great  deal  of  executive  ability, 
and  it  did  not  take  him  long  to  lay  out  a  cam 
paign  of  relief  measures. 

"Pere  Le  Brun,  perhaps  it  would  be  better 
for  you  to  go  to  Wuhu  and  oversee  the  work 
there.  I  will  stay  here  and  forward  supplies  to 
you  as  they  come  in;  you  can  take  two  of  the 
lay  helpers  with  you.  I  shall  live  in  the  house 
boat  at  present  and  be  ready  to  receive  the 
stores  as  soon  as  they  come  up  the  river;  but 
before  you  go  we  must  send  a  wheelbarrow  of 
provisions  to  the  Chang  village.  I  cannot  get 
those  poor  patient  people  off  my  mind." 

Thus  quickly  was  relief  work  under  way,  but 
before  leaving  for  the  boat  Pere  Perrin  wrote 
the  following  letter:  * 

March  1st,  1911. 
Dear  Dr.  Scott: 

I  thank  you  most  heartily  for  your  kind  letter  and 
your  sympathy  toward  our  poor  Christians.  Poor  cer 
tainly  they  are,  and  in  some  districts  the  starving  are 
the  great  majority.  In  one  locality,  for  instance,  where 
the  ground  is  low  and  can  hardly  support  the  inhabitants 

*  This  letter  is  an  exact  copy  of  a  letter  written  by 
Pere  Perrin,  a  Belgian  priest,  to  an  American  doctor. 
Pere  Perrin's  own  name  has  been  retained  in  this  volume 
as  a  tribute  to  his  saintly  character  and  to  the  unselfish 
service  in  which  he  gave  his  life. 


64 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

r^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^i 

in  good  years,  the  mortality  has  been  very  great  and 
must  still  increase.  Our  work  is  now  too  extensive  for 
our  resources,  and  the  laws  passed  against  the  church 
oblige  our  friends  at  home  to  start  so  many  good  works 
that  the  alms  sent  out  to  foreign  missions  are  yearly  de 
creasing.  If  difficult  to  balance  the  account  in  common 
years,  what  difficulty  in  a  time  of  famine !  And  yet  it  is 
not  this  reason  that  prompts  me  to  appreciate  your  kind 
ness,  when  you  cut  out  such  a  big  part  of  your  own 
funds  to  be  able  to  help  us.  There  are  many  pagans  as 
destitute  as  our  Christians,  but  you  see  in  them  people 
redeemed  by  the  blood  of  our  Saviour,  sons  of  the  same 
Lord,  future  partakers,  as  I  hope,  of  eternal  bliss,  and 
there  united  forever.  What  you  are  doing  now  is  one  of 
such  deeds  that  must  be  known  "ut  vidsant  opera  vesta 
bone  et  glorificent  Patrum  vestrum  qui  in  caelo  est"  I 
trust  it  will  lead  some  to  a  better  view  of  things,  and  de 
stroy  some  prejudice  here  on  earth. 

I  will  distribute  your  funds  to  the  different  districts, 
requesting  our  missionaries  to  have  it  served  out  to  our 
Christians  in  your  name  and  require  them  to  pray  at  all 
our  intentions,  especially  for  you  and  the  mission  staff 
of  your  station. 

I  will  do  the  same  myself  and  beseech  our  Lord  to 
supply  me  in  granting  his  divine  blessing.  Believe  me, 
dear  doctor, 

Yours  most  faithfully, 

Perrin 

F. 

During  the  next  few  weeks  Pere  Perrin 
hardly  took  time  to  eat ;  friendly  officials  prom 
ised  to  aid  him,  but  he  had  to  superintend 
everything  to  see  that  the  people  received  their 
due  portion  and  that  none  of  it  stuck  to  official 
fingers.  Rumours  began  to  reach  him  that  ill- 


A  FUEL  GLEANER  FROM   THE   GROUP   OF   PATIENT-SPIRITED 
PEOPLE    IN    A   FAMINE-STRICKEN    VILLAGE 


FERE  PERRIN 65 

ness  had  broken  out  in  Feng  Ti  Fu,  and  that 
the  people  were  dying  like  flies.  At  length  a 
Chinese  came  to  him  with  a  sad  face  and  told 
him  he  had  just  had  a  letter  from  his  brother 
in  that  city,  saying  that  Dr.  Scott  and  another 
missionary  had  been  stricken  and  that  the  doc 
tor's  life  was  despaired  of. 

"It  is  strange,  Pere  Perrin,  but  the  people  in 
the  street  who  love  him  for  his  kind  deeds  are 
saying,  'He  saved  others,  himself  he  cannot 
save.'  They  do  not  know  that  this  was  said  of 
one  other  long  ago." 

"Nor  do  they  know  the  power  of  prayer  to 
our  good  God,"  replied  Pere  Perrin  firmly. 

Immediately  Pere  Perrin  sent  word  to  the 
priests  at  his  chapels  that  masses  should  be  said 
twice  daily  for  his  friend's  recovery.  He  him 
self  worked  all  day,  and  now  that  Pere  Le 
Brun  was  away  no  one  knew  how  long  were  his 
night  vigils  on  behalf  of  his  people  and  the  man 
who  lay  so  ill.  But  his  frail  human  frame  could 
not  stand  the  strain ;  one  morning  he  awoke  too 
giddy  to  arise,  and  lay  there  burning  with  fe 
ver.  Lao  Liu  wished  to  send  immediately  for 
Pere  Le  Brun  but  he  was  strictly  forbidden  to 
do  so. 

"Would  you  have  all  those  people  die  whom 
he  is  trying  to  save?  It  is  bad  enough  for  me 


6S FOREIGN  MAGIC 

to  give  up ;  neither  will  I  have  him  exposed  to 
contagion.  For  the  same  reason  you  may  not 
take  me  to  the  hospital  at  Feng  Ti  Fu ;  I  will 
not  endanger  the  lives  of  our  friends  there ;  we 
must  worry  through  alone." 

Unfortunately,  Pere  Perrin's  ideas  of  medi 
cine  and  of  the  treatment  of  fevers  had  been 
brought  with  him  from  France  fully  fifty  years 
before.  He  ordered  Lao  Liu  to  seal  up  the 
windows  so  that  no  breath  of  air  should  reach 
him,  and  to  give  him  no  water,  no  matter  how 
much  he  might  plead  for  it.  Under  this  re 
gime  he  grew  steadily  worse  and,  finally,  at  the 
end  of  the  week  yielded  to  Lao  Liu's  entreaties 
that  the  boat  should  sail  up  the  river  to  Feng 
Ti  Fu.  Now  nearly  delirious,  Pere  Perrin 
wrote  a  note  to  the  hospital  asking  for  shelter. 
His  English  was  almost  forgotten,  and  the 
letter  written  by  fever-shaken  fingers  was  so 
illegible  that  the  Americans  could  not  read  it. 

The  consequence  was  that  when  Lao  Liu  ar 
rived  with  his  loved  master  on  a  stretcher,  they 
were  not  prepared  for  a  patient;  but  they  all 
loved  Pere  Perrin,  and  a  vacant  room  was  soon 
made  ready,  and  the  old  priest  was  presently 
resting  comfortably  in  a  clean  bed.  His  friend, 
Dr.  Scott,  had  passed  the  crisis  and  was  slowly 
coming  back  to  the  life  which  he  thought  that 


FERE  PERRIN 67 

he  had  laid  down  forever.  He  was  still  too  ill 
to  attend  Pere  Perrin,  but  the  same  skilful  doc 
tor  and  nurse  who  had  saved  him  were  eager  to 
serve  the  saintly  priest.  Everything  that  hu 
man  tenderness  could  do  was  done,  but  worn 
out  with  privations  and  long  vigils,  Pere  Per 
rin  gradually  sank.  Pere  Le  Brun  was  sent 
for  and  one  glance  at  Pere  Perrin  told  him  the 
story.  He  asked  that  he  might  administer  the 
last  rites  of  the  church,  and  the  sad  office  was 
soon  performed.  When  the  little  service  was 
over  he  still  knelt  beside  his  old  comrade;  the 
nurse  standing  near  saw  the  sick  man's  lips 
moving,  and  she  whispered  to  Pere  Le  Brun, 

"Look,  he  is  trying  to  speak." 

But  Pere  Le  Brun  shook  his  head  and  an 
swered,  "Pere  Perrin  always  prayed  as  he 
lived  and  he  will  die  praying." 

It  was  a  beautiful  May  morning  when  Pere 
Perrin  went  to  sleep.  The  gardens  were  full 
of  the  scent  of  blossoms,  and  all  the  walks  were 
edged  with  iris ;  the  arches  were  covered  with  a 
little  white  climbing  rose  which  the  Chinese  call 
the  "Tree  of  Fragrance,"  and  that  looked  like 
a  filmy  cloud  against  the  blue  background  of 
the  sky.  The  Mission  group  gave  Pere  Perrin 
of  the  best  they  had,  softly  lining  the  rude  cof- 


68 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

f^^^^^*^"^^-'^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^'^*^**^^^*^*'^""^'™^"^^^"^^^™^***"^**! 

fin  and  casting  over  it  a  pall  of  purple  cloth ;  on 
this  they  laid  a  cross  of  lavender  iris. 

"He  deserves  a  monarch's  colours,"  they  told 
Pere  Le  Brim,  "though  we  douht  if  any  mon 
arch  was  ever  so  greatly  loved." 

Late  that  afternoon  they  bore  him  back  to 
his  own  people.  A  little  group  gathered  on  the 
hospital  steps  to  say  farewell.  They  watched 
the  sad  procession  go  down  the  flowery  path  to 
the  gate,  and  then  lost  sight  of  it  for  a  few 
minutes  as  it  passed  through  the  city  streets; 
but  later  they  saw  it  take  the  narrow  road 
through  the  young  budding  wheat  until  the 
winding  river  was  reached.  Pere  Le  Brun 
walked  beside  his  friend  as  he  had  done  for  the 
last  fifty  years. 

With  tear-dimmed  sight  they  turned  to  leave 
and  found,  standing  behind  them,  the  quiet, 
dignified  figure  of  the  Confucian  teacher.  "Ah, 
Ladies!"  he  exclaimed,  "we  Chinese  find  a 
proverb  in  our  sacred  Mencius :  'The  great  man 
is  he  who  does  not  lose  his  child's  heart'." 


A  CHINESE  DOCTOR 

DO  not  take  off  your  shoes  until  you  come 
to  the  river  brink,"  so  runs  the  pithy 
Chinese  proverb,  from  which  the  wayfaring 
man,  though  a  foreigner,  may  easily  gather 
that  bridges  are  scarce  in  some  parts  of  the 
Flowery  Kingdom. 

Dong  Sien  Sung,  with  his  face  turned  to 
wards  home  and  the  setting  sun,  was  too  en 
grossed  in  other  thoughts  to  dwell  on  proverbs, 
although  he  and  his  trusty  steed  had  forded 
many  streams  that  day.  Can  you  see  them  as 
they  threaded  their  way  carefully  along  the 
narrow  paths  so  full  of  stones  and  pitfalls? 
To  stumble  might  mean  a  headlong  fall  into 
the  unpleasantly  wet  field  that  bordered  the 
way,  and  if  the  donkey  had  fallen  there  would 
have  been  damage  done  to  the  bedding,  for  in 
China  it  is  not  only  fashionable,  but  necessary, 
to  carry  one's  own  bedding  when  one  takes 
more  than  a  day's  journey.  Do  not  be  de 
ceived  into  believing  that  Dong  Sien  Sung 

69 


70 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

looked  in  any  way  ridiculous  as  he  rode  aloft  on 
top  of  his  roll  of  bedding,  for  it  is  a  fact  that  a 
Chinese  gentleman  never  loses  his  dignity. 

Fortunately  for  Dong  Sien  Sung,  his  don 
key  now  knew  every  stone  in  the  road,  and 
every  mud-hole  thereof  that  was  more  than  a 
week  old,  so  the  man  could  give  himself  up 
undisturbed  to  his  meditations.  Mechanically 
he  answered  the  polite  inquiries  from  late  work 
ers  in  the  fields.  These  were  obvious  questions 
such  as:  "You  are  travelling  to-day?"  or  "You 
are  in  the  country  this  afternoon?"  and  he  re 
plied,  "Yes,  and  you  are  bringing  in  the  last  of 
the  harvest?"  The  city  folk  and  the  country 
folk  both  have  their  respective  codes  of  eti 
quette. 

But  what  was  troubling  Dong  Sien  Sung? 
For  he  had  forgotten  altogether  the  wise  ad 
vice  of  the  sages ;  he  had  already  taken  off  his 
shoes,  and  was  struggling  almost  over  his  depth 
in  the  midstream  of  his  dilemma.  The  key 
note  to  his  difficulty  lay  in  the  words  that  had 
been  ringing  in  his  ears  all  day  almost  like  a 
refrain,  "A  thousand  taels  a  year."  To  Dong 
Sien  Sung  that  sum  meant  comparative 
wealth,  a  tripling  of  his  present  salary,  and  no 
cause  for  trebling  worry  certainly. 

On  his  recent  visit  to  the  busy  port  of  Ching 


A  CHINESE  DOCTOR  71 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^*^^m**mmmm~**~^~^^^~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

Kiang  he  had  met  an  old  friend  who  had  in 
quired  politely  how  he  was,  and  what  his  pros 
pects  were.  He  had  answered  that  he  was  well 
and  enjoying  his  work,  and  his  only  regret  was 
that  he  was  not  earning  quite  as  much  for  his 
family  as  he  would  like. 

"It  is  a  favourable  hour  when  I  met  you," 
his  friend  exclaimed;  "I  have  been  looking  for 
a  foreign-trained  doctor  like  yourself  to  settle 
with  me  in  the  Interior.  I  have  a  chance  to 
start  in  business  there,  but  I  do  not  want  to 
take  my  children  where  there  are  only  Chinese 
practitioners;  we  have  learned  too  much  for 
that.  I  can  promise  you  at  least  a  thousand 
taels  a  year ;  the  inhabitants  are  very  progres 
sive  and  eager  for  a  man  who  can  use  the  for 
eign  medicine." 

Dong  Sien  Sung  shook  his  head.  "To  stay 
with  Dr.  Scott,  who  needs  me,  would  be  'Fol 
lowing  the  Way',"  he  replied,  for  he  was  well 
versed  in  the  classics. 

His  friend,  however,  refused  to  have  the 
proposition  declined  so  summarily,  and  said 
that  he  would  leave  the  offer  open  for  a  few 
weeks  until  Dong  Sien  Sung  had  thought  it 
over  more  carefully.  Now  the  trouble  with 
Dong  Sien  Sung  was  that  he  had  a  conscience 
and,  moreover,  it  was  a  well-trained  Christian 


72 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

fmmm**m*m~mmm^^  ^^^^^^^^^^^3 

one.  On  the  face  of  it,  the  offer  was  most  al 
luring,  and  one  that  few  really  progressive 
young  men  could  resist ;  but  there  was  another 
side  to  be  considered.  Without  doubt  he  owed 
everything  to  the  foreigners,  and  as  he  rode,  his 
thoughts  went  back  to  his  childhood  with  its 
pitiful  struggle  against  poverty  while  the  shad 
ow  of  starvation  constantly  fell  across  his  path. 
Then  a  missionary  had  come  and  put  him  and 
his  brother  into  school,  for  this  friend  had  seen 
possibilities  in  the  two  ragged  boys. 

Dong  Sien  Sung  had  been  unruly  and  unap- 
preciative  of  the  advantages  given  him.  The 
teachers  had  often  been  unable  to  understand 
his  view-point,  and  some  of  the  foreigners' 
ways  seemed  senseless  to  him;  but  underneath 
it  all  he  had  become  dimly  conscious  of  a  great 
love,  and  a  desire  to  benefit  him,  which  had  at 
last  won  the  day.  He  had  received  as  good  a 
medical  education  as  the  missionary  college 
could  give,  hampered  as  it  was  by  the  Chinese 
restrictions  against  dissection  and  the  study  of 
anatomy,  and  when  a  new  station  was  opened 
in  the  north  under  a  foreign  surgeon  he  had 
gone  there  as  assistant  and  student.  Under 
the  care  of  his  new  teacher  he  had  grown  from 
a  raw,  awkward,  and  often  moody  young  man, 
to  be  a  very  skilful  assistant,  who  gave  ether 


Photograph  by  D.  B.  S.  Morris,  Hwai  Y 


THE    OX    MAKES    A    GENTLE    STEED    FOR    THE     CHILDREN     OF 
THE    VILLAGE    OF    THE    ARROGANT    DRAGON 


WHEN  THE  THERMOMETER 
FALLS  IX  CHINA,  ON  GOES 
ANOTHER  LAYER  OF  PADDED 
GARMENTS 


A  CHINESE  DOCTOR  73 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^*^™^^^^^^^^^^"^*'^"^™^^^'*'****^^™M*^^^'"M™^M'>M*^*'****'*^*''J 

and  handed  instruments  like  an  expert.  In  his 
thoughts  Dong  Sien  Sung  was  too  modest  to 
claim  all  this  for  himself,  but  he  knew  that  in 
many  ways  he  was  indispensable  to  the  station. 

The  foreigners  came  to  him  about  questions 
of  Chinese  etiquette,  or  when  the  mission  had  a 
chance  to  buy  a  bit  of  land,  and  he  saw  to  it  that 
they  were  not  cheated.  In  the  last  six  months 
Dr.  Scott  had  left  him  more  and  more  in 
charge  of  the  primitive  hospital,  and  he  en 
joyed  the  sense  of  responsibility,  while  the  for 
eign  doctor  was  thus  enabled  to  do  some  orig 
inal  work  in  studying  Oriental  diseases.  Dong 
Sien  Sung  knew  that  mission  stations  were 
poor,  and  that  they  could  only  afford  to  pay 
their  helpers  a  living  wage.  His  salary  could 
not  be  raised  without  raising  that  of  the  other 
workers,  and  yet  there  was  a  sense  of  dissatis 
faction  and  uneasiness  that  his  income  was  so 
far  below  what  he  might  earn  in  other  places. 

So  his  river  was  a  very  deep  and  a  very 
muddy  one,  and  the  bank  of  decision  seemed  a 
long  way  off.  By  the  time  that  he  had  studied 
the  subject  to  this  extent  they  were  going 
through  the  narrow  street  of  the  village  of  the 
Arrogant  Dragon.  The  name  was  the  only 
pretentious  thing  about  the  hamlet,  for  the 


74 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

half-tumbled-down  mud  houses  with  their 
thatched  roofs  looked  far  from  arrogant.  Per 
haps  the  dragon,  while  in  a  fit  of  rage,  had 
nibbled  pieces  out  of  the  walls  and  pulled  the 
straw  from  the  roofs  and  then  had  retired  in 
high  dudgeon  to  the  ruined  temple  which  was 
his  abode.  As  he  entered  the  village  the  trav 
eller  passed  a  water-coolie  with  his  two  buckets 
swung  on  a  pole  over  his  shoulder. 

"If  it  had  not  been  for  the  foreigners  I  might 
be  doing  that,"  thought  Dong  Sien  Sung;  "I 
am  not  so  badly  off  after  all." 

Unfortunately,  such  worthy  thoughts  were 
banished,  for  not  far  away  the  young  doctor 
caught  sight  of  a  little  procession.  Some  mili 
tary  official  and  his  retinue  were  travelling  in 
state.  "Rather  a  scratch  lot,"  an  English  sol 
dier  would  have  called  them,  but  to  Dong  Sien 
Sung  they  typified  much  that  he  admired.  The 
official  rode  on  horseback  on  a  gaily  capari 
soned  animal,  and  in  front  and  behind  him 
marched  ragged  soldiers  with  large  red  charac 
ters  printed  on  their  uniforms,  and  bearing 
paper  parasols  or  flying  pennants.  The  officer 
rode  in  dignity  with  a  fan  held  up  to  his  eyes  to 
keep  the  rays  of  the  setting  sun  from  them. 
Firearms  seemed  to  be  generally  lacking,  but 


A  CHINESE  DOCTOR  75 

as  long  as  the  party  had  fans  and  parasols 
what  need  had  they  of  muskets?  * 

Dong  Sien  Sung  did  not  care  much  for  the 
military  glory;  that  part  of  the  procession  had 
no  attractions  for  a  man  of  education,  but  it 
was  the  sight  of  the  official  button  and  the 
many  coloured  peacock  feathers  that  wrought 
the  mischief.  What  would  he  not  give  to  have 
one  of  his  sons  attain  that  honour,  dear  to  every 
right-thinking  Chinese  heart?  Surely  it  was 
a  legitimate  ambition,  for  China  sorely  needed 
Christian  statesmen.  In  the  end,  therefore,  it 
was  a  very  small  thing  that  decided  Dong  Sien 
Sung — a  glass  button  brought  him  to  the  firm 
ground  of  his  resolve,  and  he  battled  no  longer 
with  the  current. 

Having  at  length  made  up  his  mind,  Dong 
Sien  Sung  took  more  note  of  his  surroundings ; 
he  found  that  they  had  come  nearly  to  the  end 
of  their  journey  and  were  about  to  descend  the 
banks  of  a  real  river.  He  knew  that  he  must 
now  be  more  alert,  for  this  river  had  a  ferry, 
and  if  there  was  anything  his  donkey  despised 
and  fought  shy  of,  it  was  a  ferry.  Dong  Sien 
Sung  might  be  a  changed  being  since  he  had 
been  educated,  but  the  donkey  was  still  unre- 

*  This  was  in  the  days  before  the  Revolution ;  Chinese 
soldiers  are  much  more  military  now. 


76 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

t. . _____ 

generate ;  in  fact,  he  had  never  recovered  from 
the  cruel  handling  which  he  had  received  in  his 
youth,  and  had  distrusted  all  mankind  ever 
since.  With  the  assistance  of  the  ferrymen  and 
fifteen  or  twenty  yelling,  swearing  coolies,  the 
unwilling  animal  was  at  length  coaxed  on 
board  the  ferry  by  dint  of  being  jerked  for 
ward  while  every  one  kept  at  a  safe  distance 
from  his  heels. 

Once  on  board,  the  animal  subsided  and 
Dong  Sien  Sung  had  a  chance  to  resume  his 
thoughts.  Though  his  mind  was  now  firmly 
settled,  he  was  not  particularly  happy;  he  was 
tired  after  his  trip,  and  this  last  tussle  with  his 
donkey  had  not  helped  his  temper.  A  pang  of 
homesickness  went  over  him  as  the  city  on  the 
river-bank  drew  nearer,  and  he  recognised  fa 
miliar  objects.  Beyond  that  high  gate  was  his 
home,  which  his  busy  wife  kept  cosy  and  neat — 
so  different  from  that  of  their  heathen  neigh 
bours — and  this  was  another  thing  for  which 
they  could  thank  the  foreigners.  On  the  high 
ridge  behind  the  town  rose  the  walls  of  the  new 
hospital  that  was  being  built ;  it  was  to  be  very 
sanitary,  and  there  he  could  at  least  try  some  of 
the  latest  inventions  of  medical  science.  There, 
too,  was  the  church  and,  also,  the  Boys'  School; 
when  he  went  away  he  would  be  taking  his  chil- 


A  CHINESE  DOCTOR  77 

dren  into  a  city  where  there  was  absolutely  no 
Christian  environment.  Only  a  Chinese  can 
know  the  degradation  which  that  implies ;  those 
who  have  been  through  the  pitch-black  mid 
night  can  realise  the  full  beauty  of  the  light. 

Dong  Sien  Sung  shook  himself  from  such 
thoughts  as  being  foolish;  his  decision  was 
made,  and  his  children  could  now  go  to  board 
ing-school,  where  he  would  pay  the  tuition  him 
self  without  help  of  scholarships.  The  boat 
touched  the  shore,  the  donkey  alighted  willing 
ly,  and  with  a  brief  good-night  to  the  boatman, 
Dong  Sien  Sung  moved  toward  home.  As  he 
turned  into  the  little  street  the  boys  recognised 
him  and  ran  forward  with  shouts  of  glee.  At 
the  door  of  their  courtyard  stood  Dong  Si  Mu 
all  bows  and  smiles;  when  they  entered  their 
home  together,  there  was  no  kissing  as  there 
would  be  in  America — that  would  be  highly  im 
proper — but  there  was  great  good  will  and 
many  inquiries  about  each  other's  welfare. 

After  several  bowls  of  tea  Dong  Si  Mu, 
without  noticing  his  weary,  gloomy  face,  start 
ed  to  recount  the  news  to  her  husband.  With 
great  enjoyment  she  showed  him  some  red 
hard-boiled  eggs  sent  over  that  day  by  the  Liu 
family  to  announce  the  glad  news  that  Liu 
Sien  Sung  was  the  father  of  a  son.  Dong  Sien 


78  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

f"**^^"^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^7 

Sung  listened  quietly  for  a  while,  for  he  was  a 
patient  man,  but  at  last  he  remarked, 

"Silence  in  a  virtuous  woman  is  golden." 
Looking  up  and  catching  sight  of  his  expres 
sion,  his  wife  decided  that  silence  would  also  be 
wisdom  in  this  particular  virtuous  woman. 
Nevertheless,  she  wondered  what  had  come; 
over  her  husband's  usually  sunny  temper. 
Dong  Sien  Sung  was  a  keen  man;  he  decided  it 
would  be  better  to  wait  to  tell  his  decision  to  his 
wife  until  after  he  had  seen  Dr.  Scott,  then  it 
would  be  irrevocable,  for  he  had  an  idea  that 
Dong  Si  Mu  would  resist  the  change  with  all 
the  determination  of  which  a  Chinese  woman  is 
capable.  Her  friends  and  interests  were  here, 
and  she  was  not  ambitious  to  go  elsewhere. 

The  next  morning  Dong  Sien  Sung  delayed 
reporting  at  the  hospital  until  the  latest  pos 
sible  moment,  for  he  loved  his  friend  and  he 
hated  to  disappoint  him.  He  waited  so  long 
that  the  dispensary  was  full  of  patients  and 
there  was  only  time  for  an  exchange  of  greet 
ings,  but  Dr.  Scott  fairly  beamed  when  he 
looked  at  him.  "I  wish  he  would  not  make  it 
so  hard,"  thought  Dong  Sien  Sung,  fretfully. 
At  length  all  the  dressings  were  done  and  the 
prescriptions  given  out;  over  the  dispensary 
fell  a  silence,  for  the  last  patient  had  departed. 


A  CHINESE  DOCTOR  79 

"I  am  so  glad  to  see  you  back,"  Dr.  Scott 
exclaimed.  "There  have  been  several  new  op 
erative  cases  I  wish  to  try,  but  did  not  dare  to 
do  so  without  your  assistance  to  help  me  watch 
afterwards,  for  it  means  several  weeks  in  bed. 
But  best  of  all,  my  venerable  mother  has  come 
to  visit  us  from  America,  and  I  want  you  to  be 
sure  to  see  her." 

"It  will  give  me  great  honour  to  call  upon 
your  most  revered  parent,"  Dong  Sien  Sung 
said  without  much  enthusiasm.  Then,  gather 
ing  his  courage  together  for  his  confession,  he 
announced:  "Dr.  Scott,  I  have  decided  to 
leave  Feng  Ti  Fu." 

In  a  low  voice  he  recounted  his  reasons.  He 
gave  them  eloquently  and  well,  but  he  saw  the 
glad  light  die  in  his  friend's  face  as  if  wiped 
out  by  a  sponge,  and  in  its  place  slowly  spread 
a  grey,  anxious  look.  For  a  long  time  they  dis 
cussed  every  phase  of  the  question;  Dr.  Scott 
did  not  blame  Dong  Sien  Sung  one  whit  for 
wanting  to  be  more  independent,  yet  he  felt  his 
prospective  loss  terribly.  It  was  long  past  tif 
fin  time  when  they  parted  rather  sadly. 

In  spite  of  his  trouble,  Dong  Sien  Sung  was 
mindful  of  the  courtesies,  so  late  on  that  after 
noon,  and  clad  in  his  best  silk  coat,  he  went  to 
call  on  the  foreign  lady.  With  his  graceful 


80 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

carriage,  and  intelligent,  even  noble  features, 
Dong  Sien  Sung  was  every  inch  the  gentle 
man,  and  he  made  a  most  favourable  impres 
sion  on  the  stranger.  Through  Dr.  Scott  as  in 
terpreter,  he  asked  the  proper  questions  as  to 
her  age,  and  the  number  of  her  sons,  and  com 
plimented  her  on  her  "lofty  longevity  and  her 
great  happiness." 

After  these  polite  preliminaries  the  conver 
sation  gradually  turned  to  the  subject  that  was 
in  all  their  minds, — namely  Dong  Sien  Sung's 
departure.  The  lady  expressed  her  regret  and, 
after  a  slight  pause,  she  said: 

"Of  course  we  understand  the  reasons  why 
you  would  like  to  go,  and  in  many  ways  they 
seem  almost  unanswerable,  but  perhaps  there 
is  one  side  of  the  question  which  you  have  not 
fully  considered.  My  sons  and  their  friends 
have  made  a  great  sacrifice  in  leaving  their 
homes  and  friends  in  America  to  come  to 
China.  Their  prospects  were  very  bright,  but 
they  did  not  hesitate  because  they  loved  the 
Chinese  and  wanted  to  help  them.  Do  you  not 
think  the  Chinese  in  turn  should  make  sacri 
fices  so  as  to  help  their  own  people?  I  think 
there  is  no  doubt  your  influence  can  count  for 
more  here  than  in  some  city  where  you  have  no 
one  to  co-operate  with." 


A  CHINESE  DOCTOR  81 

*>m^*mm~^aim~~m^m~^***^~^~^^m^^^m^mmm**m*'^~mmmmil~~mm^^^*~~m**mimm^*~**~^! 

Dong  Sien  Sung  assented,  and  shortly  af 
terwards  withdrew,  without  apparently  having 
changed  his  mind.  As  they  left  the  room  to 
gether  he  asked  Dr.  Scott  if  he  might  speak  to 
him  a  moment  in  his  study.  As  soon  as  they 
were  seated  he  turned  to  his  friend.  "Dr. 
Scott,"  he  exclaimed,  "the  voice  of  the  aged  is 
as  the  voice  of  God.  I  have  decided  to  remain 
in  Feng  Ti  Fu." 

Dong  Sien  Sung  was  as  good  as  his  word;  he 
slipped  back  into  his  old  place  and  fulfilled  his 
duties  as  efficiently  as  he  had  done  in  the  past. 
Two  years  flew  by;  then  once  more  came  a 
tempting  offer  from  a  railroad  company,  and 
this  time  there  was  a  promise  of  fifteen  hun 
dred  taels  a  year  if  he  would  look  after  the 
health  of  the  workmen.  There  was  a  chance 
for  private  practice  as  well. 

The  Chinese  sages  say,  "Heaven  has  heaven 
spirits,  earth  has  earth  spirits,  man  has  man 
spirit,  things  have  indwelling  spirits,"  and  they 
surely  ought  to  know,  for  they  lived  in  China  in 
the  golden  age  of  wisdom.  With  so  many  spir 
its  about,  it  is  no  wonder  that  a  spirit  of  rest 
lessness  entered  into  Dong  Sien  Sung.  "The 
voice  of  the  aged"  was  now  across  the  Pacific, 
too  far  away  to  be  heard  by  the  keenest  ears,  so 
he  accepted  the  offer,  and,  on  one  autumn 


82 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

morning,  with  a  very  red-eyed  Dong  Si  Mu 
and  his  three  children,  he  left  Feng  Ti  Fu. 

The  ambitious  practitioner  prospered  be 
yond  his  brightest  dreams,  yet  for  some  reason 
he  did  not  feel  very  contented.  Perhaps  this 
was  partly  due  to  the  news  of  the  terrible  fam 
ine  raging  around  his  old  home  and  that  the 
foreigners  were  working  ceaselessly  to  relieve 
the  want.  In  March  the  soft  spring  wind  re 
minded  him  that  the  plum  trees  in  front  of  the 
hospital  would  soon  be  in  bloom;  that  the 
pomegranates  on  the  hillside  were  turning  a 
delicate  pink,  and  a  great  wave  of  homesickness 
went  through  him.  In  the  end  the  little  breezes 
wooed  him  South  again.  He  told  his  wife  that 
he  needed  some  medical  supplies,  and  leaving  a 
young  doctor  in  charge  of  his  work,  he  fared 
forth  with  a  lighter  heart  than  he  had  known 
for  some  months. 

His  donkey,  too,  seemed  to  feel  the  holiday 
spirit  and  was  unusually  docile,  if  the  word  can 
ever  be  truthfully  applied  to  the  animal.  As 
they  travelled,  the  character  of  the  country 
changed,  and  the  fields  grew  more  bare,  for 
every  blade  of  grass  had  been  pulled  up  by  the 
people  in  their  great  hunger.  The  few  men 
whom  they  met  were  mere  skeletons,  with 
scarcely  strength  enough  to  hold  out  their 


A  CHINESE  DOCTOR  83 

hands.  Dong  Sien  Sung  gave  such  relief  as  he 
could  and  was  thus  so  delayed  that  it  was 
nearly  dusk  on  the  third  day  before  he  ap 
proached  the  city.  He  fairly  glowed  when  he 
thought  of  the  welcome  which  he  would  re 
ceive. 

Suddenly,  he  recognised  one  of  the  Chris 
tians  in  a  figure  that  was  walking  toward  him. 
But  why  was  his  head  so  bowed  and  his  face 
clouded  with  grief?  They  met  and  greeted 
each  other  with  grave  courtesy,  and  after  one 
or  more  questions  on  Dong  Sien  Sung's  part, 
the  evangelist  exclaimed:  "Have  you  not 
heard  the  news?  I  thought  that  was  the  rea 
son  that  you  had  come.  The  poor  of  Feng  Ti 
Fu  all  'eat  bitterness'  to-night.  Dr.  Scott  is 
down  with  typhus  fever  and  he  cannot  last 
more  than  an  hour  or  so!  They  had  all  been 
working  like  giants  over  the  famine  and  were 
worn  out.  Reports  came  in  that  the  people 
were  dying  like  flies  in  one  of  the  temples  where 
they  were  harbouring  refugees,  and  Dr.  Scott 
went  to  see  what  he  could  do.  He  found  it 
worse  than  he  had  feared,  and  he,  too,  caught 
the  contagion  and  has  been  wildly  delirious. 
Liu  Sien  Sung  is  ill,  too,  and  no  one  is  having 
any  rest." 

The  bitterness  the  poor  were  eating  was 


84 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

sweet  compared  to  the  sorrow  and  remorse  in 
Dong  Sien  Sung's  heart.  Would  he  never 
hear  his  teacher's  voice  again?  He  urged  his 
donkey  on  as  that  surprised  animal  had  never 
been  urged  since  he  fell  into  Christian  hands, 
and  wonder  filled  that  dumb  beast's  breast.  He 
was  so  outraged  that  he  actually  responded, 
and  very  quickly  they  were  at  the  compound 
gate  and  the  donkey  was  delivered  into  the  care 
of  the  gatekeeper.  Dong  Sien  Sung  hurried 
up  to  the  house  and  was  met  by  the  foreign 
nurse. 

She  greeted  him  with  great  surprise.  "But 
you  must  not  come  in,"  she  said,  "the  house  is 
quarantined ;  you  might  take  the  fever  and  you 
must  think  of  your  own  life  and  that  of  your 
family." 

"I  have  come  to  help,"  he  replied  firmly. 
"Did  Dr.  Scott  ever  think  of  himself  when  he 
could  relieve  suffering?  He  had  a  wife  and. 
family  when  he  went  to  the  temple,  but  that 
did  not  keep  him  from  doing  his  duty,"  and  he 
walked  into  the  house. 

In  the  sad  days  of  suspense  that  followed, 
none  was  more  untiring  than  Dong  Sien  Sung. 
Foreigners  and  this  Chinese  doctor  vied  with 
each  other  in  loving  service;  often  it  would  be 
four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  before  they  could 


A  CHINESE  DOCTOR  85 

leave  the  sick  room  long  enough  to  snatch  a 
mouthful  of  breakfast.  They  were  fighting 
against  a  treacherous  foe,  and  they  simply 
would  not  acknowledge  themselves  defeated. 
Three  times  they  thought  the  loved  patient  had 
gone,  only  to  see  some  slight  flicker  of  life  re 
turn,  which  encouraged  them  to  work  on. 

Dong  Sien  Sung  was  invaluable;  his  quiet 
manner  soothed  the  patient,  and  it  was  a  plea 
sure  to  see  how  softly  he  moved  about  the  room, 
and  with  what  skill  he  used  his  shapely  hands. 
He  was  always  on  the  alert,  ready  for  any 
emergency,  and  when  not  needed  would  keep 
himself  absolutely  in  the  background.  Even 
when  the  crisis  was  past  and  the  foreigners 
felt  that  it  was  safe  to  relax  their  watchfulness, 
they  could  not  persuade  Dong'  Sien  Sung  to 
leave  the  sufferer.  It  was  a  mystery  when  he 
ate  and  never  did  he  seem  to  sleep.  He  was 
like  the  faithful  shepherd  dog  who  will  not 
leave  his  wounded  master's  side. 

At  length  came  a  day  when  Dr.  Scott  sat 
bolstered  up  in  a  chair,  and  radiant  with  joy. 
Dong  Sien  Sung  sat  beside  him. 

"Dong  Sien  Sung,  you  will  soon  be  going 
back  to  your  work,  and  I  want  to  try  to  thank 
you,  but  no  words  can  ever  express  the  love  and 
gratitude  I  bear  you.  If  only  I  could  afford  to 


86  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

^^^^^~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^*m**m^^^mim*mmi*iii'^mmimmm*mmm**ii*^imm***] 

keep  you  near  me,  I  would  never  let  you  go. 
I  shall  always  think  of  you  when  I  hear  the 
words,  'Faithful  unto  death',"  said  the  for 
eigner,  turning  to  his  friend  with  deep  feeling. 

For  once  Dong  Sien  Sung  forgot  the  formal 
sentiments  demanded  by  Chinese  custom,  and 
he  replied  simply,  "Dr.  Scott,  I  cannot  leave 
you.  What  you  have  gone  through  has  made 
the  next  world  seem  all  important,  and  ad 
vancement  appears  worthless  in  comparison  to 
fidelity  to  duty.  When  I  saw  how  quietly  you 
spoke  that  day  when  we  all  came  to  say  good 
bye,  and  how  sweetly  Mrs.  Scott  bore  it,  and 
helped  to  keep  your  courage  strong  with  her 
own,  I  made  up  my  mind  to  stay  in  Feng  Ti 
Fu.  I  plainly  saw  that  it  is  true  that  'None  of 
us  liveth  to  himself,  and  none  dieth  to  himself,' 
and  I  felt  that  I  must  be  in  a  place  that  is  doing 
work  for  other  people."  Thus  Dong  Sien  Sung 
turned  his  back  on  his  ambitions  and  a  com 
petency  of  fifteen  hundred  iaels  a  year.  Do 
such  men  deserve  the  name  of  rice  Christians? 

Let  no  one  make  the  mistake  of  thinking 
that  life  in  the  Middle  Kingdom  is  monoto 
nous.  In  the  following  autumn  a  little  fire 
started  that  was  spread  all  over  the  country  to 
sweep  away  the  monarchy.  Like  all  con 
flagrations,  it  did  not  amount  to  much  at  first, 


A  CHINESE  DOCTOR  87 

and  people  smiled  when  they  spoke  of  the 
revolution.  The  foreigners  returned  as  usual 
to  their  stations  after  their  vacations,  but  the 
fire  of  the  uprising  crept  nearer ;  Nanking  was 
besieged,  and  the  American  consul  telegraphed 
that  the  women  and  children  must  go  to 
Shanghai.  Reluctantly  they  departed,  leaving 
Dr,  Scott  at  the  hospital  with  Dong  Sien  Sung 
as  his  right  hand  man. 

The  uncertainty  and  suspense  that  followed 
would  be  difficult  to  describe.  Mails  were  in 
frequent  and  the  anxious  friends  in  Shanghai 
could  hear  nothing,  except  at  long  intervals; 
but  the  wildest  rumours  of  the  happenings  of 
that  period  did  not  convey  any  real  idea  of  the 
atrocities  that  actually  occurred.  At  Feng  Ti 
Fu  matters  were  even  worse;  the  country 
round  about  was  full  of  bands  of  robbers,  who 
attacked  the  unprotected  villages  while  the  in 
habitants  fled  into  the  city  for  safety.  Once 
Dr.  Scott  got  as  far  as  a  three  or  four  hours' 
trip  from  home  on  his  way  to  Nanking  for 
news,  when  a  messenger  came  after  him  with 
the  report  that  brigands  had  surrounded  Feng 
Ti  Fu  and  had  been  repulsed  in  a  sharp  little 
encounter,  and  would  he  return,  as  the  chief  of 
ficial  had  been  wounded  ?  There  was  nothing  to 
do  but  to  go  back  as  quickly  as  possible. 


88 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

Things  grew  worse  and  worse;  the  helpers 
and  evangelists  were  forced  to  take  their  fam 
ilies  to  their  own  province  for  safety.  Thus 
far  no  foreigners  had  been  killed ;  monarchists 
and  revolutionists  alike  had  orders  to  protect 
them,  but  the  brigands  were  looting  under  no 
man's  orders.  Dong  Sien  Sung  came  to  Dr. 
Scott  again  and  again,  pleading  with  him  to 
leave.  Finally,  word  came  that  the  trains  were 
no  longer  to  run,  and  that  people  who  fled 
along  the  railroad  tracks  were  murdered  every 
day. 

Dong  Sien  Sung  and  the  city  elders  went  to 
the  foreigner  and  said,  "You  must  go;  staying 
here  you  endanger  all  our  lives,  for  the  rob 
bers,  knowing  you  are  here,  will  be  tempted  all 
the  more  to  come.  They  have  an  idea  that 
every  foreigner  is  rich." 

"But,"  Dr.  Scott  protested,  "I  have  only  a 
few  dollars ;  they  will  get  nothing." 

"That  is  all  the  worse!  They  will  not  be 
lieve  you  and  think  you  have  it  hidden,  and 
will  torture  both  you  and  us." 

This  was  unanswerable,  so  he  turned  to 
Dong  Sien  Sung:  "Of  course  you  will  come 
too,  your  family  in  Shanghai  will  expect  it  ?" 

The  young  doctor  shook  his  head:  "My 
duty  is  to  stay  and  guard  the  compound;  the 


A  CHINESE  DOCTOR  89 

news  would  quickly  spread  if  there  was  no  one 
in  charge,  and  it  would  be  pillaged  immedi 
ately.  I  speak  the  dialect  and  could  disguise 
myself,  perhaps,  in  case  of  trouble,  but  you 
would  be  unmistakable.  But,"  and  his  eyes 
filled  with  tears,  "if  anything  happens  to  me 
you  will  look  after  my  family?" 

Much  moved  by  the  request,  Dr.  Scott  prom 
ised  the  brave  fellow  that  he  would  do  so,  and 
they  set  to  work  over  last  plans.  One  of  the 
hardest  things  Dr.  Scott  ever  did  was  to  say 
good-bye  to  his  faithful  friend,  whom  he  left 
standing  calm  and  brave  at  the  gate  of  the  hos 
pital.  He  caught  the  last  train  out  to 
Shanghai  and  arrived  there  without  accident. 
Dong  Sien  Sung's  task  was  anything  but  easy; 
he  had  to  guard  the  compounds,  not  only 
against  brigands,  but  from  sneak  thieves  as 
well,  and  he  scarcely  knew  rest  day  or  night. 
Town  after  town  in  the  neighbourhood  was 
looted  and  the  inhabitants  slaughtered,  but 
though  as  by  a  miracle,  the  robbers  passed  by 
the  hospital  buildings.  Each  day  a  rumour 
came  that  on  the  morrow  the  brigands  would 
surely  arrive,  but  several  weeks  elapsed  and 
still  the  compound  was  undisturbed.  At  last 
the  unhappy  country  began  to  settle  down  once 
more;  a  republic  was  established,  and  the 


90 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

American  consul  gave  Dr.  Scott  permission  to 
return  to  Feng  Ti  Fu. 

At  the  hospital  he  met  the  same  calm  friend 
that  he  had  left,  very  much  worn,  it  is  true, 
from  his  many  vigils,  but  loyal  to  the  last,  To 
gether  they  went  over  the  hospital  and  houses, 
while  Dong  Sien  Sung  told  the  story  of  those 
hard  weeks  with  not  one  word  of  boasting. 
Everything  was  as  it  had  been  left;  nothing 
seemed  to  have  been  taken.  It  was  wonderful! 
Even  on  the  nursery  floor  lay  a  little  toy  horse 
that  had  been  dropped  by  one  of  the  babies  in 
the  hurry  of  departure.  To  hide  his  emotion 
Dr.  Scott  stooped  down  to  pick  it  up.  Finger 
ing  it  nervously  he  said,  "Dong  Sien  Sung,  we 
can  really  never  thank  you  enough,  for  you 
have  saved  our  homes  at  the  risk  of  your  own 
life,  and  you  never  counted  the  cost;  what  are 
thanks  compared  to  such  an  act  ?" 

Dong  Sien  Sung  was  equally  moved.  But 
in  China  they  find  it  hard  to  speak  the  language 
of  the  heart,  and  to  his  lips  came  only  the  con 
ventional  words  that  cloak  so  many  shades  of 
thought.  "It  is  nothing!" 

Then  the  American  did  a  thing  that  was  con 
trary  to  all  Oriental  etiquette ;  he  held  out  his 
hand  and  his  friend  clasped  it  warmly.  The 


A  CHINESE  DOCTOR  91 

man  from  the  East  and  the  man  from  the  West 
both  knew  that  they  were  joined  together  by  a 
bond  that  no  distance  or  time  could  ever 
sever. 


VI 

THE  INCENSE  BURNER 

CHANG  Dah  Mah  sat  sipping  her  tea 
with  deep  indrawn  breaths  of  content; 
she  nodded  her  head  sagely  to  give  emphasis 
to  the  remark  she  was  making.  "So  I  said  to 
the  foreign  lady,  'Books  won't  do,  Mrs.  Scott, 
hooks  won't  do  out  our  way,  for  the  necro 
mancer  is  the  only  one  that  can  read,  and  he's 
blind'." 

Her  companion  felt  that  Chang  Dah  Mah 
had  made  the  only  possible  rejoinder  under  the 
circumstances,  but  realising  that  her  friend 
had  more  conversational  tit-bits  in  reserve,  Wu 
Sao  Tze  remained  silent. 

Chang  Dah  Mah  nibbled  daintily  at  a  water 
melon  seed  and  continued,  "It  takes  a  fast 
rider  and  an  early  start  to  reach  one's  destina 
tion  before  a  foreigner,  for  Mrs.  Scott  replied, 
'In  that  case  I  think  we  will  have  to  teach  you 
to  read,'  and  I  was  so  surprised  I  promised  that 
I  would  come  twice  a  week  to  a  class.  I  can't 
imagine  why  I  did.  Whoever  heard  of  a  wom- 

92 


THE  INCENSE  BLERNER/"    98 

r*a^M*™*"™^*^M*™*M*""^MM^^"*™^^"^-^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^' 

an's  learning  to  read  at  my  age,  and  why 
should  they  want  to  take  the  trouble?  It 
seems  strange  enough." 

Wu  Sao  Tze  shook  her  head;  it  all  sounded 
very  suspicious.  "You  had  better  beware," 
she  said.  "There  is  black  magic  in  those  foreign 
books;  I  have  it  on  good  authority  that  they 
seem  to  teach  beautiful  doctrines,  but  those 
who  try  to  practise  them  become  very  queer," 
and  she  tapped  her  forehead  suggestively. 

Chang  Dah  Mah  was  thoughtful  for  a  min 
ute.  "I  am  not  sure,  but  I  think  those  reports, 
are  wrong,  for  our  own  wise  men  say,  'Be 
nevolence  is  man's  peaceful  abode;  righteous 
ness  is  his  straight  path.'  I  sometimes  wonder 
if  it  would  not  be  well  if  the  Chinese  were 
queer  in  the  same  way.  I  was  told  when  I 
went  to  the  hospital  nearly  blind  that  the  for 
eigners  would  cut  out  my  eyes  to  make  medi 
cine;  instead,  they  gave  me  back  my  sight. 
Did  a  Chinese  doctor  ever  make  a  blind  per-> 
son  see?  They  stick  needles  into  the  eye  and 
then  one  is  blind  without  a  shadow  of  doubt. 
Now  there  is  Mrs.  Scott,  the  doctor's  wife ;  he 
is  as  polite  to  her  as  he  would  be  to  a  man; 
he  actually  allows  her  to  go  through  a  door 
before  himself,  and  he  opens  it  for  her  most 
courteously.  Do  not  mention  it,  but,"  and 


94 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

here  Chang  Dah  Mah  cast  a  furtive  glance 
around  her  to  be  sure  there  was  no  listener  to 
the  terrible  heresy  she  was  about  to  utter,  "I 
sometimes  wish  I  had  been  born  a  foreign, 
woman  myself." 

Wu  Sao  Tze's  startled  glance  made  Chang 
Dah  Mah  realise  that  she  had  gone  too  far; 
should  Wu  Sao  Tze  report  this,  it  might  get 
her  into  trouble  with  her  family  and  neigh-? 
bours.  Here  was  a  case  for  diplomacy.  "I 
suppose  you  would  not  care  to  attend  this 
class,  you  might  be  afraid  of  the  magic?  It  is 
a  pity,  too,  for  there  is  so  seldom  anything  new 
in  this  part  of  town,  and  the  foreigners  have 
all  sorts  of  strange  toys  that  they  show  one. 
There  is  a  box  of  music  that  plays  without  any 
one's  touching  it;  it  can't  be  bewitched,  for 
the  head  official  has  one  at  the  yamen,  and  he 
would  not  use  a  dangerous  thing,  for  he  is  a 
learned  man.  Then  they  have  clocks  that 
strike,  and  queer  furniture  and  clothes.  They 
do  not  use  chopsticks,  but  knives  and  forks 
that  are  most  barbarous.  It  is  too  bad,  but  of 
course  you  would  not  feel  it  safe  to  come,  and 
I  would  not  even  suggest  it  to  you." 

The  Chinese  are  often  called  a  peculiar  peo 
ple,  but  when  we  come  to  analyse  them  they 
are  not  very  different  from  ourselves,  for 


THE  INCENSE  BURNER        95 

American  ladies  have  been  known  to  gossip 
over  a  cup  of  tea.  Curiosity  does  frequently 
overcome  their  prudence,  and  the  temptation 
of  being  seen  with  a  woman  of  better  birth 
has  sometimes  caused  them  to  accept  an  invi 
tation,  no  matter  what  the  consequences. 

Although  Chang  Dah  Mah  did  not  know 
how  to  read,  she  knew  womankind  and  was  not 
at  all  surprised  when  her  friend  swallowed  her 
skilfully  dangled  bait  and  said  that  she  would 
join  the  class.  The  temptress  drew  a  sigh  of 
relief,  for  now  she  felt  safer;  Wu  Sao  Tze 
could  not  accuse  her  of  being  under  the  foreign 
influence  if  she  went  to  their  home  herself. 

The  sun  set  early  on  those  November  days, 
and  long  shadows  from  the  western  mountain 
were  creeping  down  the  narrow  street  of  the 
little  hamlet  where  Chang  Dah  Mah  lived. 
The  village  was  nothing  but  an  unkempt  sub 
urb  of  the  larger  city  that  lay  to  the  north;  a 
suburb  that  had  once  been  properous,  but,  like 
the  inhabitants  themselves,  it  had  fallen  into 
adversity. 

Chang  Dah  Mali1  knew  that  she  must  now 
make  her  adieux.  Having  thanked  Wu  Sao 
Tze  for  her  boundless  hospitality,  and  having 
made  arrangements  for  them,  to  go  together  on 


96 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

t^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  ^^^^^^^^1 

the  following  day  to1  thd  foreign  lady's  class, 
the  two  friends  separated. 

The  family  of  Chang  were  in  no  sense  par- 
venues,  for  they  could  trace  their  ancestry  back 
through  many  generations.  In  China,  where 
everything  old  is  regarded  almost  as  fetish, 
good  lineage  is  doubly  respected ;  but,  alas,  this 
family  had  little  else  but  past  grandeur  to  live 
upon,  and  their  present  condition  could  best  be 
described  as  "decayed  gentility."  The  Taip- 
ing  rebellion  had  swept  over  that'  part  of  the 
country,  leaving  devastation  in  its  wake,  and 
the  city'  and  the  neighbourhood  almost  a  heap 
of  ruins. 

The  Changs  lived  in  patriarchal  fashion, 
after  the  manner  of  China's  best  families ;  three 
generations  of  sons,  their  wives,  and  their  chil 
dren  all  dwelt  under  one  roof — or  what  re 
mained  of  one  roof.  And  such  an  arange- 
ment,  as  Chang  Dah  Mah  could  attest,  does 
not  make  for  peace  and  a  quiet  life. 

No  one  need  tell  her  the  scene  that  would 
greet  her  when  she  entered  her  home ;  she  knew 
that  the  children  would  be  quarrelling,  the 
women  gossiping,  and  the  men  loafing.  The 
condition  of  their  finances  was'  rendered  pre 
carious  from  the  fact  that  the  men  "could  not 
dig,"  for  manual  toil  was  beneath  them.  "To 


Photograph  by  D.  B.  S.  Af  orris,  Hu>ai  Yuen,  China 


THE  DIN  AND  CLANGOR  OF  THE  CROWDED  STREET  SEEM 
FAR  REMOVED  FROM  THE  QUIET  GARDEN  WITHIN  THE  COURTYARD 
OF  THE  CHINESE  HOME 


r'*tto*6,*r**r*  '          "         '       'o 


THE  INCENSE  BURNER         97 

beg  they  were  ashamed,"  and  they  had  no 
learning;  so  the  only  practicable  means  of 
support  was  to  sell  an  occasional  heirloom  to 
the  pawnbroker  and  gamble  away  the  pro 
ceeds.  Such  a  course  of  conduct  did1  not  im 
prove  their  dispositions. 

Chang  Dah  Mali  helped  out  a  little  by  doing 
sewing;  indeed,  it  was?  in  this  way  that  she  had 
first  met  the  foreigners.  She  had  gone  to  them 
against  her  family's  will,  for)  there  was  no  tell 
ing  what  disaster  she  might  bring  upon  her 
precious  relatives  by  associating  with  "foreign 
devils,"  and  she  had  persisted,  not  from  any 
particular  bravery,  but  had  been  driven  on  by 
the  pangs  of  hunger.  The  strangers  had  no 
ticed  the  state  of  her  poor  eyes  and  had  finally 
prevailed  on  her  to  have  an  operation. 

Very  few  such  kindnesses  had  Chang  Dah 
Mah  known  since  she  had  come,  a  child  of 
eight,  to  live  in  the  house  of  her  father-in-law, 
and  this  one  had  impressed  her  greatly.  Her 
life  had  been  one  round  of  sordid  toil  because 
she  was  the  quietest  and  most  industrious 
among  the  women.  The  only  break  in  the  mo 
notony  had  been  her  husband's  death  many 
years  before,  which  had  been  quite  a  pleasur 
able  excitement  with  its  hired  mourners,  feast 
ing,  and  confusion;  and  she  could  not  feel  any 


98 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

i — , — _ — _____ 

depth  of  sorrow  for  him,  as  he  had  been  one  of 
the  worst  of  her  tyrants.  The  marriages  of  her 
younger  brothers-in-law  had  indeed  been  mo 
mentous  too,  but  as  she  had  to  do  the  greater 
part  of  the  work  on  these  occasions,  she  did  not 
look  back  upon  them  with  any  particular  joy. 
jNTow,  however,  the  foreign  lady  had  smiled 
upon  her  and  life  had  taken  on  another  hue; 
she  had  not  yet  given  over1  all  misgivings,  but 
something  drew  her  irresistibly  toward  the 
newcomer's  home. 

It  can  easily  be  seen  that  it  was  with  no 
rose-coloured  dreams  of  anticipation  that 
Chang  Dah  Mah  turned  her  face  towards  her 
dwelling.  On  reaching  the  threshold  she  drove 
away  a  lean  pariah  dog  that  had  followed  her 
closely;  her  imagination  was  too  deadened  by 
toil  to  see  in  it  a  likeness  to  the  proverbial 
wolf  whose  shadow  ever  fell  across  that  door 
way.  As  she  entered  she  was  greeted  by  a  tor 
rent  of  curses  for  the  lateness  of  the  hour. 
"When  you  know  your  brothers-in-law  need 
their  evening  meal,  that  is  the  hour  you  choose 
for  idling  with  your  gossip."  The  only  reason 
Chang  Dah  Mah  was  permitted  to  pay  such 
visits  was  the  knowledge  that  she  usually  got 
a  cup  of  tea,  which  left  more  food  for  the 
hungry  mouths  at  home. 


THE  INCENSE  BURNER        99 

The  house  was  almost  dark  and  the  flicker 
ing  oil  lamp  accentuated  the  blackness  all 
around.  Chang  Dah  Mah  did  not  need  to 
remove  her  hat  and  coat,  for  she  wore  the  same 
clothing  out  of  doors  as  in  the  house.  There 
was  no  heat,  and  the  air  in  the  damp  rooms 
was  even  more  clammy  than  that  in  the  open. 
With  a  quick  glance  around  her  to  see  that 
no  one  was  watching,  she  went  to  the  corner 
of  the  room  where  she  kept  her  bedding  to 
assure  herself  that  it  had  remained  untouched, 
in  her  absence,  then  she  turned  and  started 
her  preparation  for  the  evening  meal. 

Now  Chang  Dah  Mah  had  a  secret,  and 
around  it  centred  the  greatest  joy  and  the 
greatest  fear  of  her  poor  thwarted  life.  Thirty 
years  before  as  her  dissolute  husband  lay  dying 
he  spoke  to  her  in  a  low  whisper  when  for  a 
brief  minute  they  happened  to  be  alone.  Beck 
oning  her  to  lean  over  him,  so  that  no  one  could 
see  what  he  was  doing,  from  beneath  his  bed 
ding  he  slipped  a  little  bVass  bowl  into  her 
hand.  Bidding  her  turn  it  over,  he  pointed  out 
on  the  bottom  of  it  the  seal  of  a  dynasty  long 
since  passed  away.  It  was  one  in  which  many 
of  the  most  valuable  Chinese  works  of  art  were 
made. 

The  dying  man  told  her  that  this  piece  of 


100 FOREIGN  MAGIC      

brass  had  belonged  to  the  Changs  ever  since 
that  period,  and  that  there  was  a  legend  that  if 
the  incense-burner  were  sold,  a  great  disaster 
would  fall,  not  only  on  the  living  members  of 
the  family,  but  on  the  spirits  of  their  ancestors. 
The  only  way  it  could  ever  be  parted  with  was 
as  a  gift  of  charity,  but  he  warned  her  against 
this  as  a  foolish  waste;  no  Chang  could  ever 
be  brought  to  give  anything  away. 

"I  give  it  to  you,  foolish  woman,"  he  said, 
"because  I  know  that  my  brothers  would  sell 
anything  to  get  money  for  gambling;  I  can 
hardly  trust  you  not  to  sell  it  f or!  food,  but  you 
are  the  most  trustworthy."  And  with  these 
kindly  words  he  breathed  his  last. 

Chang  Dah  Mah  quickly  slipped  her  new  re 
sponsibility  up  her  ample  sleeve  and  called  the 
family.  Not  for  many  hours  did  she  have  a 
chance  in  quiet  to  examine  her  new  possession, 
as  the  mourning  of  her  brothers-in-law  made 
up  in  noise  what  it  lacked  in  sincerity.  At  last, 
one  night  when  the  household  was  deep  in  slum 
ber,  Chang  Dah  Mah  was  able  to  inspect  her 
incense-burner  by  the  dim  light  of  the  moon. 
She  longed  to  see  the  brass  in  the  daytime,  as 
she  had  done  at  first,  and  when  the  polished 
sides  had  shone  like  gold  to  her  who  never  be 
fore  in  her  life  had  owned  anything  of  value. 


THE  INCENSE  BURj  101 

__  /j i    j      j  $+*"*•**;*<. 

Chang1  Dah  Mah  passed  her  finger  lovingly 
over  her  treasure,  tracing  the  seal  on  the  bot 
tom  with  great  care,  though  she  was  too  igno 
rant  to  know  a  single  character,  and  for  nearly 
an  hour  she  held  it  and  fondled  it.  Very  se 
cretly  she  dug  a  hole  in  the  mud  floor  under  the 
place  where  she  had  always  kept  her  bedding; 
there  she  hid  it  by  wrapping  it  in  a  handker 
chief,  and  by  packing  the  earth  carefully  over 
the  hole.  Daylight  had  almost  come  before 
she  [had  satisfied  herself  that  there  was  no 
chance  of  discovery. 

From  that  time  forward  Chang  Dah  Mah's 
life  centred  around  the  bowl;  all  the  affection 
that  had  previously  been  denied  expression  was 
lavished  on  this  small  object.  Before  this,  she 
had  tried  to  satisfy  her  yearning  for  love  by 
kindnesses  to  her  nephews  and  nieces,  but  their 
parents  had  been  jealous,  and  they  had  forced 
her  to  desist.  Then  she  had  adopted  a  scrawny 
kitten,  but  the  family  had  exclaimed  in  horror 
at  giving  scraps  to  her  pet  that  she  should  eat 
herself,  so  the  animal  was  taken  away.  No  one 
could  interfere  with  her  affection  for  the  in 
cense-burner  as  no  one  knew  of  its  existence. 

Very  seldom  did  she  have  a  chance  to  look 
at  it,  for  only  occasionally  did  she  dare  to  take 
it  from  the  hiding  place,  and  then  only  at 


102  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

night.  Once  a  year  when  the  family  attended 
the  idol  procession  she  would  steal  away  in  the 
crowd  and  go  home  to  gloat  over  the  brass 
incense-burner.  To  keep  it  as  brightly  polish 
ed  as  on  the  day  when  she  received  it  was  ever 
her  ambition,  but  that,  too,  had  to  be  done  at 
night.  She  never  went  away  from  the  house 
without  the  fear  tugging  at  her  heart  that  some 
one  might  discover  it  in  her  absence,  and  so  it 
was  with  a  deep  sigh  of  relief  that  she  would 
return  and  find  it  safe.  This  treasure  had  never 
had  a  rival,  and  the  slight  dawning  interest 
Chang  Dah  Mah  had  in  the  foreigners  could 
not  be  compared  to  the  all-absorbing  feeling 
for  it  which  had  crept  into  the  very  fibre  of 
her  being. 

The  following  morning  Chang  Dah  Mah 
arose  earlier  than  usual  so  that  she  would  be 
sure  to  get  away  in  good  time  for  the  mile 
walk  to  the  foreigner's  compound.  How  her 
family  would  jeer,  she  thought,  if  they  had 
known  that  stupid  Chang  Dah  Mah  really  im 
agined  that  she  could  learn  to  read. 

She  made  herself  as  tidy  as  she  could  under 
the  circumstances,  and  hobbled  off  stiffly  on  her 
poor  bound  feet.  Wu  Sao  Tze  was  waiting  for 
her  impatiently  at  the  corner  of  the  street,  so 
there  was  no  delay  in  their  departure.  The 


THE  INCENSE  BURNER       103 

bright,  sparkling,  autumn  sunshine  seemed  to 
get  into  their  blood,  and  as  they  walked  along, 
they  chatted  almost  gaily  of  the  wonders  they 
were  about  to  see. 

Wu  Sao  Tze  found,  to  her  surprise,  that 
Chang  Dah  Mah  had  not  exaggerated  the  mar 
vels  of  the  missionary  house.  She  put  an  inquis 
itive  nose  into  every  closet  and  every  drawer 
to  assure  herself  that  there  was  no  baby's 
skeleton  concealed,  and  at  last,  being  fully  sat 
isfied  that  there  was  no  black  art  hidden  in  any 
sequestered  nook,  she  consented  to  being  be 
guiled  with  the  other  women  into  the  reading 
class.  Chang  Dah  Mah  had  proudly  acted  as 
guide  in  seeing  all  the  curiosities.  As  they 
seated  themselves  in  the  woman's  guest-room, 
Wu  Sao  Tze  confided  to  her  friend  in  a  loud 
whisper  that  all  the  people  present  could  hear : 

"Well,  the  foreigners  may  not  use  magic, 
but  they  are  certainly  very,  very  queer." 

It  was  with  difficulty  that  Wu  Sao  Tze  was 
restrained  from  talking  during  the  hymn  and 
prayer  that  followed;  in  fact,  she  kept  up  a 
running  comment  on  all  that  was  said  and 
done  that  was  very  amusing.  Before  the  read 
ing  lesson  was  begun,  a  short  selection  from 
the  Bible  was  read  and  commented  on  by  the 
teacher.  The  verse  on  that  morning  was  on  the 


104  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^*^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^m^mmmm*^^^^~mmmmmm*^^^^*^^ 

forgiving  of  one's  enemies,  and  to  Wu  Sao 
Tze  it  seemed  an  utterly  absurd  doctrine.  In 
her  eagerness  and  excitement  she  stood  right 
up,  for  she  felt  that  such  foolish  words  must  be 
contradicted. 

"Hear  me!  Mrs.  Scott,"  she  exclaimed, 
"such  doctrine  may  be  all  very  well  where  you 
come  from,  but  it  won't  do  in  China;  not  for 
a  moment !  Why,  our  enemies  would  ride  right 
over  us ;  you  have  to  have  backbone  here,  and 
answer  right  back  when  you  are  reviled,  or 
you  would  lose  face." 

All  the  other  women  but  Chang  Dah  Mah 
nodded  assent.  "She  is  right  and  has  answered 
wisely,"  they  murmured;  but  Chang  Dah  Mah, 
thinking  of  her  sisters-in-law  and  their  harsh 
tongues,  felt  that  there  might  be  something 
to  be  said  for  the  new  system. 

During  the  next  few  months  Wu  Sao  Tze 
and  Chang  Dah  Mah  attended  the  class  regu 
larly  and,  little  by  little,  were  able  to  recog 
nise  a  few  characters.  The  kindness  and  sym 
pathy  that  they  invariably  received  melted 
their  prejudices  and  won  their  love,  though 
Wu  Sao  Tze  would  often  shake  her  head  and 
say: 

"But  I  can't  understand  why  they  take  the 
trouble,  unless  it  is  to  acquire  merit." 


THE  INCENSE  BURNER      105 

In  February  the  famine  that  had  been 
threatening  fell  on  the  city  with  its  horrors. 
Those  were  dark  days  for  Chang  Dah  Mah, 
for  she  felt  her  strength  gradually  failing,  and 
she  began  to  fear  that  the  time  would  come 
when  she  would  no  longer  be  able  to  walk  to 
the  foreigner's  home  and  see  her  beloved  Mrs. 
Scott.  The  only  money  she  could  make  was  by 
the  sewing  which  she  did  for  that  lady.  Chang 
Dah  Mah  would  not  complain,  so  it  was  not 
suspected  how  much  she  needed  food,  and  if 
she  looked  a  little  thin,  so  did  all  the  women. 

For  the  first  time  since  it  had  come  into  her 
possession,  Chang  Dah  Mah  seriously  contem 
plated  the  necessity  of  selling  the  incense- 
burner.  In  former  famines  she  had  thought  of 
it,  but  had  always  decided  that  she  would  rath 
er  die  than  lose  it,  and  the  idea  of  being  haunt 
ed  by  her  ancestors'  spirits  had  deterred  her. 
But  now  to  be  separated  from  Mrs.  Scott 
seemed  even  worse  than  ghosts ;  besides  this  a 
little  of  the  Christian  doctrine  had  begun  to 
sink  in,  and  she  began  to  doubt  some  of  the  old 
superstitions.  Night  after  night  she  would  dig 
up  the  treasure,  thinking  that  in  the  morning 
she  would  sell  it,  but  as  the  day  began  to  dawn, 
old  habits  and  associations  regained  their  pow- 


106 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  •^^^^^^^^^^^^^•••^^•^^^•••j 

er,  and  she  would  return  the  bowl  to  its  hiding 
place. 

On  one  warm  March  afternoon  the  two 
friends  decided  to  go  and  see  Mrs.  Scott, 
though  it  was  not  the  usual  time.  The  notes  of 
a  spring  bird  seemed  to  assure  them  that  winter 
and  the  famine  would  soon  be  gone,  so  they 
were  more  cheerful  than  they  had  been  for 
many  weeks.  When  they  reached  the  gate  of 
the  compound  a  sad  disappointment  awaited 
them,  for  the  foreign  doctor  was  down  with  ty 
phus  fever  and  the  place  was  in  strict  quaran 
tine.  Mrs.  Scott  was  nursing  him  and  could 
see  no  one,  so  they  turned  their  faces  homeward 
with  heavy  hearts;  several  times  Chang  Dah 
Mah  nearly  fell,  for  she  was  weighed  down  with 
grief  and  hunger.  She  thought  of  the  tender 
ness  she  had  received  in  the  hospital ;  how  gen 
tly  Dr.  Scott  had  touched  her  eyes,  and  now  he 
was  dying  and  she  could  not  tell  him  of  her 
gratitude. 

Chang  Dah  Mah  never  knew  how  she  lived 
through  the  next  few  weeks.  She  received  a 
little  sewing  from  some  of  the  other  foreign 
ladies  and  that  kept  her  from  dying;  but  they 
were  too  absorbed  with  the  illness  to  know  that 
very  often  Chang  Dah  Mah's  eyes  were  so 
dimmed  with  tears  that  she  could  scarcely  see 


THE  INCENSE  BURNER       107 

^•"••••^^™'^^         '^^••'^^•^•'^•••^^•^•^•^^•^••^•••'•^T^; 

her  stitches,  for  the  reports  were  not  favour 
able,  but  rather  worse  and  worse. 

Then  one  day  when  she  crept  to  the  front 
door  they  told  her  that  the  doctor  was  better 
and  if  she  would  come  back  in  three  days'  time 
that  she  could  see  her  beloved  foreign  lady.  No 
words  can  tell  of  Chang  Dah  Mah's  joy;  she 
forgot  that  she  was  old  and  weak  with  hunger 
and  went  down  the  street  telling  the  glad  news 
to  the  neighbours  as  she  passed. 

The  minutes  dragged  on  leaden  wings  until 
the  hour  that  Mrs.  Scott  had  appointed  for 
Chang  Dah  Mah's  visit,  and  when  she  finally 
stood  bowing  before  the  foreigner,  she  could 
scarcely  speak.  She  seemed  shy  and  ill  at  ease 
and  acted  as  if  she  had  something  on  her  mind. 
Mrs.  Scott,  to  relieve  her  embarrassment, 
talked  to  her  of  everything  which  she  thought 
would  interest  her,  when  suddenly  in  a  broken 
voice  Chang  Dah  Mah  said: 

"Mrs.  Scott,  it  is  such  a  great  happiness  to 
us  poor  that  Dr.  Scott  is  better  that  I  can 
scarcely  talk  about  it.  I  hear  he  took  the  fever 
going  to  see  the  people  who  were  dying  at  the 
temple;  now  he  must  not  run  such  risks  if  I 
can  prevent  it,  so  I  have  brought  him  this 
worthless  incense-burner  that  when  he  goes 
into  places  where  there  are  contagious  diseases 


108  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

! : 

he  will  smell  the  incense  and  come  to  no  harm." 
And  putting  her  hand  up  the  ample  sleeve  of 
her  Chinese  coat,  Chang  Dah  Mah  drew  forth 
her  treasure,  carefully  wrapped  in  a  blue  hand 
kerchief. 

Deeply  touched,  Mrs.  Scott  looked  search- 
ingly  into  the  woman's  eyes  and  knew  that  this 
was  a  gift  that  must  not  be  refused,  no  matter 
how  valuable  it  might  be.  But  she  could  never 
know  that  Chang  Dah  Mah  had  given  all  that 
she  had. 

After  this  time  the  days  sped  rapidly  by  for 
Chang  Dah  Mah,  and  she  was  constantly  at 
the  home  of  her  new  friends,  much  relieved 
in  spirit  by  the  renunciation  she  had  made.  At 
length  came  the  end  of  May  and  it  was  an 
nounced  that  the  next  lesson  would  be  the  last 
for  the  women's  reading  class,  as  it  was  neces 
sary  for  the  foreigners  to  go  away  to  the 
mountains. 

Once  more  Chang  Dah  Mah  and  Wu  Sao 
Tze  made  an  early  start  in  order  not  to  lose 
one  moment  of  the  precious  time  of  that  last 
day.  As  they  entered  the  walk  leading  up  to 
the  door,  the  garden  was  a  blaze  of  glory  with 
the  spring  flowers  forming  a  mass  of  bloom; 
the  bright  colours  claimed  their  attention,  and 
they  could  scarcely  leave  them  to  enter  the 


THE  INCENSE  BURNER       109 

house.  The  class  was  soon  assembled  and  the 
exercises  begun.  The  chapter  read  was  from 
the  end  of  Revelation,  and  Mrs.  Scott,  who 
felt  that  she  had  recently  had  a  glimpse  into 
the  Holy  City,  talked  with  her  face  aglow. 
She  looked  down  for  some  answering  light  in 
those  dull  contenances  that  were  just  begin 
ning  to  show  some  small  spark  of  intelligence, 
but  they  looked  bewildered  and  startled.  Such 
profound  knowledge  was  difficult  for  them  to 
grasp. 

Then  the  teacher's  eyes  caught  those  of 
Chang  Dah  Mah,  who  was  sitting  eagerly  for 
ward  in  her  chair  so  as  not  to  miss  one  word. 
It  was  evident  that  her  long,  grey  day  of  sor 
did  existence  was  ending  in  a  golden  sunset 
shot  with  the  colours  of  the  rainbow.  Taught 
by  her  love  and  her  great  sacrifice,  she  suddenly 
exclaimed : 

"Oh,  Mrs.  Scott,  it  must  be  very  beautiful, 
even  lovelier  than  the  garden,  and  I  want  to 
go!  I  want  to  go!"  Then,  catching  sight 
of  her  rough,  toil-stained  hands,  and  her  coarse 
coat,  she  felt  she  would  never  gain  admittance 
to  this  wonderful  place  if  she  went  alone;  so 
looking  wistfully  up  at  her  friend  she  contin 
ued,  "I'll  follow  you!  I'll  follow  you!  if  you 
will  only  take  me  to  that  country!" 


VII 
HOW  BETTY  SAVED  THE  KIDDIES 

BETTY  put  down  her  story-book  and 
sighed  almost  from  her  boots.  She  wished 
that  she  was  not  only  just  thirteen;  it  must  be 
perfectly  lovely  to  be  as  old  as  "William  the 
Conqueror"  and  go  into  the  heat  of  Southern 
India  to  feed  poor  starving  natives.  Of  course, 
it  wasn't  the  William  the  Conqueror  famous  in 
history  whom  she  was  envying,  but  Rudyard 
Kipling's  "William — the  girl,"  who  insisted  on 
spending  a  summer  helping  her  brother  to  res 
cue  Indian  famine  sufferers. 

"I  suppose  I'm  really  not  pretty  enough  to 
be  a  heroine,"  Betty  thought.  "A  girl  with  red 
hair  and  a  good  many  freckles  wouldn't  do  at 
all;  still  Kipling  doesn't  make  William  very 
beautiful,  so  if  I  were  a  bit  older  I  might  have 
a  chance.  And  Elizabeth  Kenneth  McKenzie 
would  read  awfully  well — it's  the  only  beauti 
ful  thing  about  me." 

Betty  looked  wistfully  out  of  the  window 
on  the  narrow  grass  plot  surrounded  by 

no 


BETTY  AND  THE  KIDDIES     111 

flower  beds  in  which  a  few  late  chrysanthe 
mums  still  bloomed;  beyond  these  the  high 
compound  walls  shut  her  in.  On  the  whole,  it 
was  a  very  small  playground  and  it  did  not 
tempt  her  now.  Over  the  walls  came  the  usual 
street  noises  of  a  crowded  Chinese  city;  the 
call  of  the  street  vender,  the  shrill  scolding  of 
women  quarrelling,  the  barking  of  pariah  dogs, 
even  the  grunts  of  pigs,  and  at  the  gate,  the 
tap  of  a  beggar's  stick,  and  his  whining  voice 
asking  for  alms.  The  air  was  oppressive  with 
sickening  odours,  for  in  China,  as  a  visitor 
once  wisely  remarked,  "There  are  seventy- 
five  smells  one  can  identify  and  twenty-five 
unknown  ones."  It  would  take  walls  several 
leagues  high  to  keep  these  odours  from  pene 
trating. 

Betty  did  not  notice  the  noises  or  the  smells; 
like  Brer  Fox,  who  had  been  "born  and  bred 
in  a  brier  patch/'  she  had  always  lived  within 
sight  and  sound  of  these  very  streets. 

This  year  was  different,  however.  All  sum 
mer  long  the  rain  had  fallen,  and  the  rivers  and 
canals  had  risen  and  flooded  the  country  as  far 
as  eye  could  see.  When  Betty  had  come  back 
from  the  summer  in  the  mountains  and  had 
steamed  up  the  river  in  a  launch,  instead  of 
green  fields  and  bright  harvests  the  country 


112  FOREIGN  MAGIC  

was  one  vast  lake.  The  city,  too,  had  changed ; 
around  its  walls  thousands  of  straw  huts  had 
been  built.  These  were  just  long  enough  for  a 
man  to  lie  in,  but  not  tall  enough  to  make  it 
possible  for  him  to  stand  erect.  And  in  these 
huts  lived  one  hundred  thousand  men,  women, 
and  children. 

Betty  was  never  allowed  at  any  season  to  go 
out  alone  in  the  crowded  streets,  but  this  win 
ter  she  did  not  want  to  go  even  with  her  father, 
as  there  were  hungry  people  on  every  hand, 
begging  for  bread.  She  could  not  bear  to  pass 
them  by  without  giving  them  a  few  cash,  and  to 
do  so  might  cost  the  lives  of  all  the  foreigners ; 
for  in  a  few  minutes  a  mob  of  starving  people 
would  collect  and  demand  food ;  so  all  the  giv 
ing  had  to  be  done  outside  the  walls  at  famine 
relief  camps. 

Life  seemed  very  dull  and  very  sad,  indeed, 
to  Betty  on  this  dark  November  afternoon.  "I 
know  I  should  feel  better  if  I  could  only  do 
something  for  them,"  she  repeated  over  and 
over.  "Then  I  would  climb  on  a  mule  and  go 
out  to  the  relief  work  and  give  out  meal  tickets 
all  day,  and  I  wouldn't  mind  their  crying  so, 
because  I  would  be  doing  something." 

At  that  moment  she  heard  a  knock  at  the 
door  of  the  gate-house  and  saw  the  old  gate- 


BETTY  AND  THE  KIDDIES     113 

p"™""™^1"^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  * 

keeper  in  his  funny  padded  coat  go  forward 
to  open  the  door.  He  stood  making  deep  bows 
of  welcome  to  Betty's  mother.  No  matter  how 
often  in  the  day  she  came  in,  Chinese  polite 
ness  called  for  a  certain  amount  of  ceremony 
every  time.  Betty  was  overjoyed  to  see  her, 
but  as  her  mother  came  nearer  she  noticed  with 
a  pang  how  tired  she  looked.  She  sank  into  a 
chair  with  a  sigh,  while  Betty  stuffed  a  cushion 
behind  her  back,  took  off  her  hat,  and  ran  into 
the  kitchen  for  a  cup  of  tea.  Betty  had  not 
lived  so  long  in  China  without  finding  out  the 
cheering  qualities  of  tea. 

"Well,  dearie,  what  have  you  been  doing?" 
her  mother  asked  between  refreshing  sips. 

"Oh,  nothing,  only  reading,"  Betty  an 
swered.  "But  where  in  the  world  have  you 
been  all  this  time  ?  It's  been  terribly  lonesome, 
with  the  boys  at  the  Steads  and  you  and  father 
out." 

"I  have  been  visiting  the  poor  women  in  the 
neighbourhood  to  find  the  really  needy  cases; 
but  the  trouble  is  that  they  are  all  so  needy  it's 
hard  to  choose,"  and  the  tired  lines  returned 
to  her  face  as  she  spoke.  "There  are  at  least 
fifteen  babies  right  around  us  who  will  starve 
to  death  unless  we  feed  them,  and  I  really  do 


114  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

L^^  '          — ""      **!  i 

not  see  how  I  can  do  one  solitary  thing  more 
than  I  am  doing." 

Betty's  heart  went  thump;  here  was  her 
chance,  but  she  must  keep  quiet  and  not  speak 
hastily  or  she  might  lose  it.  After  thinking  a 
moment,  she  said  with  an  air  of  grown-up  im 
portance  which  she  unconsciously  used  when 
talking  to  older  people,  "Oh,  mother,  just  let 
me  feed  those  babies!" 

"You,  Betty!"  her  mother  exclaimed. 

"Yes,  me — your  daughter,  Elizabeth  Ken 
neth  McKenzie — the  name  ought  to  help.  I 
can  do  it  morning  and  evening;  you  can  show 
me  how  the  first  time  and  then  I  will  do  it  by 
my  lonesome." 

"But,  Betty,  the  babies  are  so  dirty;  I'm 
sure  you  will  have  all  sorts  of  diseases.  I  sim 
ply  can't  have  my  little  daughter  touch  them." 

"Well,  mother,  I  don't  see  what's  the  use  of 
being  the  daughter  of  a  foreign  missionary  if 
you  can't  keep  babies  from  starving.  I  might 
as  well  be  brought  up  in  style  in  America;  any 
how,  with  father  spending  all  his  days  among 
the  famine  fever  patients,  and  you  in  the  peo 
ple's  houses,  if  we  are  going  to  catch  things  and 
die,  we  will  anyway." 

Her  mother  knew  that  she  spoke  the  truth, 
but  she  could  not  help  a  sigh.  She  did  not 


BETTY  AND  THE  KIDDIES     115 

doubt  Betty's  powers,  for  she  had  trained  her 
herself  and  had  not  left  her  to  servants.  With 
all  her  teaching  she  had  kept  Betty  a  healthy, 
romping  girl,  inducing  her  only  to  curb  the 
quick  temper  that  is  supposed  to  be  the  con 
comitant  of  red  hair,  and  rejoicing  always  in 
her  daughter's  warm  heart. 

Mrs.  McKenzie  was  deep  in  thought,  but  at 
last  she  said,  "We  will  have  to  ask  father,  but 
I'm  sure  he  will  consent;  we  simply  cannot  let 
any  human  beings  starve  whom  we  can  save!" 
Then  she  let  her  usual  reserve  go,  for  she  was 
very  sad  and  tired.  "I  wonder  all  the  time  how 
it  will  end.  Here  is  your  father  working  him 
self  to  death,  and  every  morning  when  I  say 
good-bye  to  him,  I  ask  myself,  will  he  come 
back  to-night?  If  the  Chinese  were  not  the 
most  patient  people  in  the  world,  they  would 
rise  up  and  demand  food  of  those  in  authority, 
and  would  wreck  everything  until  they  were 
given  rice.  There  is  no  telling  where  they 
would  stop." 

Betty  looked  at  her  mother  in  surprise,  for 
she  was  always  so  bright  and  cheerful.  If  she 
gave  way,  things  must  be  black  indeed.  How 
ever,  she  had  won  her  victory,  for  she  knew  her 
father  well  enough  to  realise  that  he  would 


116 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

not  place  obstacles  in  her  way — as  her  brothers 
often  said,  "What  mother  says  goes." 

Soon  all  was  arranged;  the  women  from  the 
immediate  neighbourhood  whom  Mrs.  McKen- 
zie  had  seen  were  to  be  allowed  to  bring  their 
babies  to  the  compound  and  the  next  morning 
was  set  for  their  first  visit.  The  supply  of  con 
densed  milk  sent  on  the  relief  ship  from  Amer 
ica  was  brought  out,  as  there  would  not  be 
enough  cow's  milk  to  go  around. 

Betty  arose  with  the  roosters ;  there  were  no 
larks  in  that  city  to  rise  with,  but  there  was 
plenty  of  poultry.  Prompt  as  she  was,  she 
could  not  out-distance  the  first  eager  woman 
who,  with  the  Chinese  idea  of  time,  arrived  at 
the  earliest  peep  of  the  sun.  Betty  kept  her 
waiting  in  the  gate-house  until  she  was  entirely 
ready  and  need  not  be  flurried ;  then  with  a  nod 
from  her,  Lao  Wong  let  all  the  women  in. 

They  were  a  motley  and  miserable  crowd, 
and  reminded  Betty  of  the  creatures  of  the 
highways  and  byways,  or  the  scarecrows  which 
she  had  seen  in  America.  Each  pitiful  figure 
had  a  scrawny,  wizened  baby  in  her  arms  or  led 
one  by  the  hand;  and  all  were  wailing  with 
hunger.  Betty  wanted  to  sit  right  down  and 
cry  too,  but  she  knew  that  would  never  do,  for 
she  was  there  to  stop  their  crying  and  not  to 


BETTY  AND  THE  KIDDIES    117 

add  her  voice  to  theirs.  In  a  very  business-like 
way  she  and  her  mother  went  to  work;  some 
they  fed  from  a  bottle,  some  from  a  spoon,  and 
one  little  mite  from  a  medicine  dropper.  It  was 
slow  work,  but  Betty  said  afterwards  that  she 
was  very  glad  she  had  nursed  her  dolls  herself 
through  the  measles  and  scarlet  fever,  instead 
of  leaving  them  to  trained  nurses,  for  now 
she  knew  how  to  handle  real  babies. 

They  could  not  feed  the  children  and  leave 
the  mothers  looking  like  famished  dogs,  so  they 
gave  them  breakfast  also.  One  poor  woman 
looked  up  with  gratitude  in  her  eyes  and  said, 
"You  are  so  good;  yesterday  my  husband  told 
me  that  to-morrow  I  would  have  to  sell  my 
baby  or  throw  it  away."  Making  a  gesture  with 
her  arms  she  added  happily,  "But  I  can  keep 
her  now,"  and  she  hugged  the  baby  close. 
It  was  nearly  eleven  when  the  last  woman  made 
her  last  deep  bow  and  said  her  final,  "You  are 
two  good,  gracious  ladies,"  and  left  the  now 
empty  and  quiet  compound. 

"I  feel  as  if  I  ought  to  soak  in  disinfectants 
for  the  rest  of  the  day,"  laughed  Betty.  "But 
this  has  shortened  the  hours  so  that  I  have  no 
time.  We  will  begin  again  at  four." 

Every  morning  and  evening  throughout  the 
winter  Betty  fed  her  babies,  and  little  by  little 


118  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

she  had  the  joy  of  seeing  their  wizened  faces 
change  and  brighten,  and  have  them  hold  out 
chubby  arms  to  her  instead  of  the  claw-like 
hands  which  had  so  distressed  her  at  first.  The 
mothers,  too,  seemed  to  love  her,  and  began 
to  soften  their  loud  tones  and  straighten  out 
their  rough  hair  and  wash  their  dirty  garments. 

When  June  came  Betty  was  a  tired  and 
very  white-faced  little  girl,  but  I  doubt  if  any 
girl  in  the  whole  Celestial  Empire  was  as 
happy  as  she.  For  the  fields  were  green  with  a 
harvest  that  promised  plenty  for  every  one  for 
the  coming  year;  and  on  Sunday  afternoon,  fif 
teen  bright- faced  Chinese  women  who  held  fif 
teen  plump,  smiling  babies  in  their  arms, 
walked  into  Mrs.  McKenzie's  class. 

"We  have  come  to  hear  about  the  God  that 
loves  little  children,"  the  oldest  woman  said. 


VIII 

A  GONE  GOOSE 

THROUGHOUT  the  long  days  of  July 
and  August  the  low  plains  of  Central 
China  lie  steaming  in  the  sun;  the  humidity  is 
terribly  high  and  the  effect  on  the  human  con 
stitution  can  be  compared  only  to  a  vapour  bath 
that  never  ceases  day  or  night.  Then,  when  the 
enervated  foreigner  feels  ready  to  give  up  the 
fight  for  such  a  weary  existence,  the  climate 
suddenly  changes  and  there  follows  week  after 
week  of  the  most  glorious  autumn  weather  to  be 
found  the  wide  world  over. 

It  was  seven  of  the  clock  on  one  of  these 
matchless  mornings,  and  Anne  Waring,  latest 
and  rawest  recruit  to  the  staff  of  an  inland 
station,  was  supposed  to  be  hurrying  with  her 
dressing.  The  glimpses  of  Chinese  life,  which 
she  caught  from  her  window  through  the  plum 
trees  and  over  the  high  compound  wall,  sadly 
hindered  the  process.  The  novelty  of  seeing  so 
many  purely  domestic  rites — fit  only  for  the 
eyes  of  one's  nearest  and  dearest — performed 

119 


120  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

in  doorways  and  streets  still  fascinated  her  and 
held  her  spellbound.  She  found  herself  whis 
pering  the  words  of  the  nonsense  rhyme,  "Now 
really,  John,  what  next?"  Here  a  man  was 
eating  a  bowl  of  rice  with  noisy  enjoyment, 
handling  the  chopsticks  with  a  deftness  that 
was  a  fine  art ;  near  him  stood  a  woman  scrub 
bing  some  garments  in  a  muddy  pool ;  and  next 
to  her,  her  best-hated  neighbour  was  washing 
her  face  and  hands  in  the  same  muddy  water. 

This  was  the  "simple  life"  indeed;  Charles 
Wagner  should  have  come  to  China  if  he 
had  wanted  to  learn  its  a,  b,  c's.  A  voice  in  the 
hall,  and  a  fragrant  whiff  of  coffee  brought  the 
dreamer  back  to  herself,  and  hastily  fastening 
the  last  button  and  giving  an  extra  pat  to  her 
rebellious  curls,  she  ran  down  the  stairs.  The 
dining-room  was  a  pleasant  sight  in  the  morn 
ing  sunlight,  with  its  blue  Soochow  rug,  a  few 
well-chosen  pictures  and  the  gleaming  white 
cloth  with  a  bowl  full  of  late  roses  in  the  centre 
of  the  table.  It  was  homelike  and  simple  too, 
but — oh,  the  contrast  between  this  simplicity 
and  that  of  the  Chinese  street! 

Behind  the  coffee  urn  sat  Miss  Matilda  Kel 
logg,  known  all  over  the  Empire  as  "Miss 
Matilda,"  a  quiet,  well-poised  little  lady,  with 
many  virtues,  no  vices,  and  a  great  amount  of 


A  GONE  GOOSE 121 

p^*iim~*^*mmm*a^'^~mm*~~**mm~i~^~^^^~m~**~~^^'^~mm*^^^*m^^~m*i~'^m*m*m~mi 

dignity,  as  became  one  who  had  lived  in  the 
East  for  twenty-five  years,  and  was  an  author 
ity  on  matters  of  Chinese  etiquette.  Although 
Miss  Matilda  had  no  vices,  she  had  one  great 
weakness,  which  she  secretly  regarded  almost 
as  a  sin;  that  was  her  fondness  for  her  old  sil 
ver.  It  was  the  only  thing  of  value  she  had 
brought  from  America  with  her,  for  she  was  the 
last  of  her  family,  and  the  plate  had  belonged 
to  a  Kellogg  for  nearly  one  hundred  years. 
Whenever  the  verse  was  read  aloud  command 
ing  us  to  set  our  affections  on  things  above,  and 
the  danger  of  thieves  and  rust  in  this  world  be 
low,  Miss  Matilda  thought  of  her  silver  with 
a  pang  of  conscience,  and  knew  that  she  had 
not  yet  been  made  perfect. 

Anne  Waring  seated  herself  at  the  table 
with  a  brief,  "Good  morning."  She  then  pro 
ceeded  to  help  herself  freely  to  strawberry  jam 
from  the  jar  standing  temptingly  near  her,  and 
which,  like  the  delectable  sweets  in  Alice  in 
Wonderland,  seemed  to  say,  "Eat  me."  She 
spread  her  crisp,  buttered  toast  very  thickly, 
for  she  felt  that  she  needed  all  the  sugar  and 
spice  she  could  find  to  make  bearable  a  morn 
ing  spent  memorizing  Chinese  radicals. 

"What  makes  Following  the  Procession  pant 


122  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

as  if  he  had  been  running  ji  race?  It  isn't  so 
far  from  the  kitchen,"  she  finally  inquired. 

"Who?  What?  Where?"  gasped  Miss  Ma- 
tilla  bewildered. 

"Why,  the  new  table  boy,  of  course.  I  call 
him  Following  the  Procession.  Dr.  Scott  as 
sures  me  that  it  is  a  free  translation  of  his 
name,  and  I  cannot  yet  pronounce  his  Chinese 


one." 


•Miss  Matilda  frowned  a  little;  she  did  not 
like  to  have  the  slightest  fun  poked  at  anything 
belonging  to  her  beloved  Chinese,  but  her  sense 
of  humour  soon  conquered,  and  she  laughingly 
replied,  "A  most  appropriate  name;  he  is  just 
the  type  that  would  follow  a  procession  to  the 
bitter  end,  regardless  of  anything  else.  In  fact, 
when  I  first  saw  him  he  was  doing  that  very 
thing;  it  was  the  June  idol  festival,  and  he  was 
one  of  the  most  engrossed  of  a  crowd  of  boys 
who  were  following  in  the  wake  of  the  Taoist 
priests  as  they  marched  from  the  temple.  The 
reason  he  breathes  so  hard  when  he  waits  on 
the  table  is  that  he  is  afraid  of  us  and  our 
strange  foreign  ways;  he  does  not  know  but 
that  at  any  moment  some  of  the  orders  we  give 
him  may  bewitch  him." 

"All  I  can  say  is  we  will  have  to  have  him 
oxygenated  if  he  keeps  it  up  much  longer ;  he  is 


A  GONE  GOOSE 123 

fairly  red  in  the  face  and  blowing  like  a  por 
poise."  After  this  elegant  expression  Anne 
Waring  turned  her  attention  to  her  breakfast. 

She  was  startled  out  of  a  reverie  by  Miss 
Matilda,  "Sneak  thieves  came  in  last  night  and 
stole  some  clothes  off  the  line ;  I  think  we  will 
have  to  buy  a  goose." 

Anne  repressed  a  flippant  desire  to  say, 
"What  is  the  use  of  buying  a  goose  when  we  al 
ready  have  Following  the  Procession?"  She 
also  wondered  what  stealing  of  clothes  had  to 
do  with  buying  a  goose.  Her  theory  was  that 
in  a  new  country  it  was  better  to  "Stop!  Look! 
Listen!"  rather  than  to  ask  too  many  questions, 
so  she  kept  her  curiosity  to  herself  and  an 
swered. 

"What  a  lark!  I  suppose  we'll  have  it  for 
Christmas !  A  goose  at  Christmas  seems  so  like 
Dickens  and  Washington  Irving,  and  so 
charmingly  Mid-Victorian."  The  last  word 
she  added  with  a  wicked  little  twinkle. 

Miss  Matilda  shuddered  at  the  "Mid- Vic 
torian."  This  latest  comer  to  the  station  was 
very  modern  and  iconoclastic,  she  thought,  but 
she  let  it  pass. 

"Why,  I  do  not  want  to  eat  the  goose,"  she 
explained.  "The  Chinese  use  geese  instead  of 
watch-dogs,  because  they  cackle  at  the  slight- 


124  FOREIGN  MAGIC     

est  noise,  and  I  thought  we  might  try  one.  We 
are  very  unprotected  here  at  the  edge  of  the 
city;  they  say  that  there  are  many  brigands 
about  this  year,  as  the  winter  promises  to  be 
a  hard  one.  The  cook  and  the  table  boy  go 
home  at  night,  and  the  gatekeeper  sleeps  like 
the  dead,  so  he  is  no  help." 

"I  think  it  is  a  perfectly  splendid  idea;  how 
clever  you  are  to  think  of  it,  and  to  use  the 
Chinese  methods!  Only  a  person  who  was 
steeped  in  Chinese  customs  would  have 
dreamed  of  such  a  thing." 

Pleased  with  Anne's  praise,  Miss  Matilda 
forgave  the  "Mid- Victorian"  thrust  on  the 
spot.  "She  really  does  appreciate  age  and  ex 
perience,"  she  thought. 

At  noon  when  this  latest  and  rawest  recruit 
entered  the  compound  gate,  she  realised  that 
Miss  Matilda,  for  all  her  love  of  things  Chi 
nese,  still  trailed  clouds  of  her  early  New  Eng 
land  training  behind  her.  For  before  Anne's 
astonished  eyes  appeared  the  goose,  and  sure 
ly  no  Oriental  ever  accomplished  a  purpose  as 
quickly  as  her  friend  had  acquired  that  bird. 
She  stood  still  at  the  sight  that  greeted  her. 
Three  of  the  Scott  children  were  chasing  the 
goose,  which  was  half  running,  half  flying, 
down  the  garden  walk.  Before  she  could  in- 


A  GONE  GOOSE 125 

terf ere,  the  scene  suddenly  changed ;  the  goose 
turned,  and,  with  loud  hisses  and  out-stretched 
neck,  reversed  the  order  of  procedure.  Quick 
ly  the  shouts  of  glee  died  away  and  the  chil 
dren  rushed  in  their  terror  for  the  protection 
of  the  house. 

All  day  long  the  thought  of  her  introduc 
tion  to  the  goose  kept  Anne  amused  and  cheer 
ful,  and  when  in  the  middle  of  her  lesson  she 
remembered  the  sudden  flight  of  the  children 
she  laughed  aloud  with  no  apparent  cause. 
The  surprise  of  her  dignified  Confucian  teacher 
was  great,  although  his  passive  Oriental  fea 
tures  did  not  allow  him  to  show  his  feelings. 
Returning  to  his  home,  however,  he  remarked 
on  the  subject  to  his  wife,  describing  the  light 
and  frivolous  manner  of  this  foreign  lady,  and 
saying  this  custom  of  these  foreigners  was  not 
good;  their  women  should  not  remain  single, 
but  should  marry  and  learn  the  respect  that 
was  due  to  the  "lords  of  creation";  of  course, 
he  did  not  use  that  exact  expression,  but  that 
was  what  he  meant. 

In  the  evening  Anne  retired  early  with  a 
sense  of  security  unknown  before  since  she  had 
arrived  to  find  that  Miss  Matilda  and  she  were 
to  live  alone  in  this  strange  city,  so  far  from 
beefsteaks,  hairpins,  electric  lights,  and  many 


126  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

thousand  other  necessities  of  modern  civilisa 
tion.  Was  not  the.  goose  there  to  protect  them, 
and  had  it  not  shown  that  it  could  make  a 
noise?  She  had  scarcely  fallen  off  into  her  first 
sweet  slumber  when  she  was  aroused  by  a  sud 
den  din  in  the  compound  directly  below  her 
room ;  at  first  she  was  too  sleepy  to  know  what 
was  happening;  then  she  realised  that  it  was 
their  valiant  protector,  the  goose.  Could  it  be 
frightening  away  a  burglar  already?  She  flew 
to  the  window  to  behold  the  gatekeeper's 
sturdy  figure  trudging  slowly  with  its  accus 
tomed  calm  toward  the  gate-house.  Of  course, 
so  soon  the  goose  could  not  be  expected  to 
know  the  difference  between  friend  and  foe, 
but  already  it  had  proved  itself  worthy  and 
vigilant.  There  were  other  slight  alarms  be 
fore  she  crossed  the  borderland,  but  when  she 
finally  slept,  she  slept  soundly. 

On  the  next  morning  the  two  friends  con 
gratulated  each  other  on  their  latest  acquisi 
tion;  their  work  went  better  all  day  for  the 
feeling  of  safety  they  had  about  the  coming 
night.  That  evening  was  a  repetition  of  the 
former  one;  again  the  gatekeeper  came  late, 
and  again  the  goose  awoke  the  sleeping  Anne. 
This  time,  however,  it  took  her  longer  to  woo 
coy  slumber,  but  at  length  it  came,  but  not 


A  GONE  GOOSE 127 

to  linger,  alas,  for  Anne!  In  the  wee  small 
hours  she  was  again  disturbed  by  a  commotion 
in  the  compound.  It  was  very  dark  and  cold 
and  she  hesitated  to  stir;  then  she  heard 
stealthy  footsteps  on  the  stair  and  she  tried  to 
reassure  herself  by  thinking  it  was  the  loud 
beating  of  her  heart;  but,  no,  they  were  com 
ing  nearer,  they  were  at  her  door.  She  would 
have  to  scream!  She  heard  Miss  Matilda 
open  the  long  French  window  in  her  room 
and  step  out  on  her  porch  and  then  a  loud 
pistol  shot.  Another  report  followed.  Was 
Miss  Matilda  killed,  or  was  she  doing  the 
shooting?  She  must  get  up  and  see,  but  her 
feet  felt  like  lead  and  her  mouth  was  so  dry 
she  could  not  call.  Then,  to  her  infinite  relief, 
she  heard  Miss  Matilda's  voice  in  the  hall,  talk 
ing  apparently  to  the  owner  of  the  footsteps, 
so  her  courage  revived  and  she  opened  the 
door. 

"What  has  happened,  and  how  many  rob 
bers  did  you  kill?"  she  cried. 

Before  her  stood  Miss  Matilda  and  Chang 
Dah  Mah,  the  amah,  looking  very  sheepish. 

"It  is  all  right,  Chang  Dah  Mah  has  no 
clock,  and  though  it  is  still  dark,  she  thought 
it  was  time  to  get  up,  so  she  began  to  dress. 
The  goose  probably  heard  her  and  started  to 


128 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

r^^""'"'^*"^™ 

cackle,  so  I  went  out  on  the  balcony  and  fired 
off  my  pistol,  just  to  let  any  would-be  burglars 
know  that  we  were  prepared." 

"What  time  is  it?"  asked  poor  Anne  weakly. 

"Just  two  o'clock,  and  we  must  be  off  to  bed 
or  we  will  be  all  worn  out  to-morrow."  With 
these  sensible  words  Miss  Matilda  disappeared. 

Anne  found  it  hard  to  catch  even  a  nap  after 
this ;  she  would  nearly  drop  off,  when  she  would 
fancy  that  she  heard  a  cackle  and  start  up  wide 
awake. 

The  history  of  that  night  was  repeated  near 
ly  every  night  thereafter.  None  passed  with 
out  two  alarms,  and  Anne  would  have  hated 
to  say  how  many  blank  cartridges  were  fired 
towards  the  mountain  from  whence  brigands 
were  supposed  to  come,  for  Miss  Matilda 
would  not  have  acknowledged  half  of  them. 
Chang  Dah  Mah  could  never  learn  the  proper 
hour  to  dress,  and  often  she  would  be  heard 
creeping  down  the  stairs.  Anne  gradually 
grew  braver  and,  after  many  false  alarms  had 
given  her  confidence,  would  join  in  the  mid 
night  march  to  the  balcony,  searching  dark 
corners  as  valiantly  as  Miss  Matilda,  until  she 
took  so  many  bad  colds  that  the  doctor  finally 
ordered  her  to  stay  in  bed.  Their  rest  was  so 
disturbed  that  she  was  heard  to  exclaim,  when 


A  GONE  GOOSE 129 

at  a  safe  distance  from  Miss  Matilda's  genteel 
ear, 

"I'd  like  to  wring  that  fowl's  neck." 

One  night  the  climax  came;  they  were 
aroused  five  different  times;  five  different 
times  was  the  pistol  fired  off  towards  the  moun 
tain.  Anne  thought  that  really  "Following 
the  Procession"  had  some  grounds  for  his  fears, 
and  that  the  foreigners  and  their  whole  com 
pound  were  bewitched.  The  following  night 
they  slept  the  sleep  of  exhaustion;  the  gate 
keeper,  the  amah,  Miss  Matilda,  Anne  War 
ing,  and  last  and  strangest  of  all  the  goose — 
none  of  them  stirred.  In  the  morning  Anne 
announced,  when  Miss  Matilda  had  fairly  to 
shake  her  to  make  her  wake  up, 

"What  a  blissful  night!  I  have  had  my  first 
good  sleep  in  weeks!" 

"And  well  you  may,"  exclaimed  Miss  Ma 
tilda,  and  Anne  saw  with  surprise  that  her 
eyes  were  suspiciously  red,  "for  thieves  broke 
in  and  stole  all  of  my  precious  silver." 

Anne's  face  was  a  study;  sorrow  for  Miss 
Matilda's  loss,  dismay  that  their  many  vigils 
had  been  in  vain  and,  above  all,  a  wild  desire 
to  burst  into  peals  of  laughter,  gave  her  a  most 
bewildered  expression.  But  this  was  no  time 
for  unseemly  mirth,  and  choking  back  the 


180  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

v~i^m^pmm^imcm''^mm'^m*~~m~~**i~i~i~mmim*~iimm~~^m~^^*~i~*mmimmmm*mi^m^~i~*m*^mi 

laugh,  she  set  herself  to  work  to  comfort  Miss 
Matilda. 

The  servants  one  by  one  were  interviewed, 
and  all  protested  the  greatest  innocence,  kn 
eluding  "Following  the  Procession,"  and  the, 
water-coolie.  No  trace  could  be  found  of  the 
thief  or  of  the  missing  silver.  The  station  de 
cided  to  take  the  matter  up;  there  had  been 
numerous  other  thefts  recently  which  had  been 
allowed  to  pass  because  they  disliked  to  appeal 
to  the  Yamen.  The  thieves  were  becoming 
dangerous,  however,  and  there  seemed  need 
of  a  more  drastic  policy.  In  a  mission  station, 
the  work  of  the  doctor  is  best  understood  and 
appreciated  by  the  Chinese,  who  give  him  the 
title  of  the  "Great  Man";  so  with  one  consent 
Dr.  Scott  was  chosen  as  ambassador  to  the 
official.  He  sent  his  large  red  calling  card  an 
hour  or  two  before  him,  announcing  his  in 
tention  of  visiting  the  magistrate,  and  followed 
it  in  due  time. 

He  was  carried  by  coolies  in  the  best  sedan 
chair  that  the  station  could  boast,  and  which 
was  gay  with  tassels  and  curtains.  On  ap 
proaching  his  destination,  he  was  surprised  at 
being  met  by  an  escort  of  soldiers  with  ban 
ners  flying,  and  when  he  reached  the  gates 
they  flew  open  for  him  without  the  usual  de- 


A  GONE  GOOSE 131 

lay.  On  inquiry,  he  found  that  a  famous  gen 
eral  was  visiting  the  official;  some  of  his  sol* 
diers  and  officers  had  been  treated  in  the  doc 
tor's  hospital,  and  the  general  was  desirous 
of  showing  his  gratitude.  This  circumstance 
made  Dr.  Scott's  visit  seem  all  the  more  hope 
ful. 

It  took  a  good  two  hours  to  make  all  the 
bows,  drink  all  the  tea,  and  ask  all  the  ques 
tions  demanded  by  Chinese  etiquette.  Then 
they  could  come  down  to  earth,  and  Dr.  Scott 
make  known  his  errand.  The  officials  were  all 
politeness  and  distress  that  this  should  occur 
in  their  unworthy  town.  It  would  be  a  simple 
matter  to  catch  the  thieves ;  they  would  order 
all  the  policemen  in  town  arrested  and  have 
them  beheaded,  and  the  silver  would  perforce 
immediately  be  returned.  Dr.  Scott  knew 
enough  of  Chinese  standards  of  justice  to  re 
alise  that  they  would  do  just  as  they  had  said. 
He  replied  exactly  as  you  or  I  would  have  done 
in  the  same  circumstances,  and  retired  a  crest 
fallen  man  to  report  to  Miss  Matilda. 

That  is  the  reason  that  Miss  Matilda's  old 
family  plate  has  given  way  to  the  best  silver- 
plated,  and  that  with  it  a  most  delicious 
Christmas  goose  was  eaten.  Fortunately, 
geese  know  no  such  nice  distinctions,  and  taste 


132  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

equally  well  from  any  kind  of  fork,  though 
Miss  Matilda  declares  that  to  get  their  best 
flavour,  one  must  use  a  pair  of  the  finest  ebony 
chop-sticks.  Anne  realised  that  she  ought  not 
to  venture  an  opinion  until  she  had  been  in 
China  at  least  fifteen  years,  but  she  knows  that 
she  never  ate  a  goose  with  greater  relish.  Thus 
departed  the  goose,  "Unwept,  unhonoured, 
and  unsung,"  and  Following  the  Procession 
picked  the  bones. 


IX 

THE  DEVIOUS  WAYS  OF  A  HOUSE-BOAT 

HELEN  BRETT  was  a  slave  to  time 
and  she  knew  it.  She  had  known  it  for 
five  years,  and  because  of  this  knowledge  her 
nerves  had  begun  to  give  way.  She  confessed 
to  the  doctor  that  the  sight  of  a  clock  made 
her  faint,  and  when  she  heard  one  strike  she 
wanted  to  stop  her  ears  and  run.  Of  course 
she  realised  that  almost  all  the  people  that  she 
knew  were  in  the  same  bondage,  but  as  they 
were  unconscious  slaves,  it  did  not  hurt  them, 
she  reasoned. 

The  habit  began  while  she  was  preparing 
for  college.  In  order  to  enter  Smith  when  she 
had  planned,  it  was  necessary  to  use  every 
minute,  and  so  she  had  started  life  with  a 
watch  in  her  hand.  Helen  meant  to  succeed 
and  she  had  succeeded,  and  not  until  she  had 
been  a  professor  in  one  of  the  leading  women's 
colleges  for  two  or  three  years  did  it  begin  to 
dawn  upon  her  that  she  hated  to  be  efficient; 
that  she  loathed  a  schedule,  and  that  a  life  or- 

133 


FOREIGN  MAGIC 


dered  like  a  railroad  time-table  was  crushing 
her  spirit  and  ruining  her  disposition. 

At  the  pyschological  moment  came  her  sab 
batical  year  and  a  letter  from  Matilda  Kellogg 
asking  Helen  to  spend  her  leave  of  absence 
in  China.  At  the  first  paragraph  Helen  shook 
her  head  emphatically;  Matilda  must  certainly 
hare  lost  all  that  practical  common  sense  for 
which  she  was  famous  when  they  had  been 
chums  at  college,  or  she  would  never  suggest 
such  a  weird  idea.  But  when  she  read  further, 
she  paused,  for  the  letter  ran: 

"If  you  decide  to  come,  there  is  one  thing  I 
must  warn  you  about,  for  I  do  not  want  to  get 
you  here  under  false  pretences.  The  Chinese 
have  absolutely  no  idea  of  time;  all  hours  of 
the  day  seem  equally  good  to  them,  and  as  far 
as  they  are  concerned,  the  sun  and  moon  stand 
still.  I  must  also  admit  that  we  foreigners 
grow  careless  after  a  vain  effort  to  try  to  hustle 
them  on  our  first  arrival,  and  we  soon  grow  al 
most  as  tardy  in  our  habits  as  they  are.  Know 
ing  that  to  you  punctuality  is  the  greatest  hu 
man  virtue,  I  make  this  confession;  neverthe 
less  I  hope  you  will  come." 

On  that  very  evening  Helen  tore  up  her 
carefully  prepared  itinerary  for  a  tour  of 
Italy,  wherein  the  arrival  and  departure  of 


WAYS  OF  A  HOUSE-BOAT     135 

m~**~~m*m^mm"^mm~^m~^^m^^*a^^^^ 

trains  was  methodically  noted,  and  -cabled  Ma 
tilda  Kellogg,  "Coming  on  the  next  steamer." 

On  stepping  off  the  launch  at  Shanghai,  the 
first  remark  Helen  made  was,  "Matilda,  I 
have  come  to  China  to  drift,  and  I  want  to  do 
the  very  most  unpunctual  thing  you  can  think 
of." 

Matilda  wiped  a  tear  away — this  seeing  her 
first  home  friend  for  seven  years  was  home 
sick  work — but  in  a  minute  she  was  laughing 
at  Helen's  characteristic,  business-like  direct 
ness.  "If  you  want  to  drift,  what  could  be 
better  than  the  house-boat  trip  to  my  station 
which  I  am  planning  for  you?  A  house-boat, 
next  to  my  cook,  is  the  most  unpunctual  thing 
in  the  world." 

Helen  found  that  a  house-boat  trip  required 
much  preparation  and  was  not  to  be  under 
taken  lightly  and  unadvisedly.  Nearly  a  week 
went  by  before  all  the  necessary  purchases  for 
a  winter  in  the  interior  of  China  could  be  made. 
When  they  finally  started  for  the  river  steam 
er  that  was  to  take  them  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Grand  Canal,  their  rickshas  were  heaped  to 
the  gunwales  with  packages,  while  the  heavy 
freight  went  on  in  carts  in  front  of  them.  They 
made  quite  an  imposing  procession. 

"I  suppose  to-morrow  evening  we  will  be 


136  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

on  our  own  little  boat,"  said  Helen  gaily  as 
they  paced  back  and  forth  on  the  broad  decks 
of  the  steamer.  "We  get  to  Ching  Kiang 
about  noon,  do  we  not?" 

Matilda  laughed.  "My  dear  tenderfoot,  do 
you  think  we  are  in  Chicago?  Why  it  will  take 
at  least  a  day  to  negotiate  for  the  house-boat, 
then  there  is  all  the  freight  and  coal  for  the 
winter  to  get  on  board.  Let  me  see?  This  is 
Tuesday;  we  will  be  lucky  if  we  get  off  by 
Friday." 

On  Saturday  morning  Matilda  Kellogg 
stated  at  breakfast  that  she  thought  that  they 
would  be  able  to  sail  by  ten  o'clock.  The  house 
boat  was  all  ready  except  for  their  personal  be 
longings  and  the  coolies  were  to  come  at  nine 
o'clock. 

At  a  quarter  after  nine  Helen  descended  the 
stairs  all  dressed  and  ready  and  seated  herself 
on  the  trunks  standing  strapped  and  waiting 
in  the  hall,  "I  am  fifteen  minutes  late.  I  did 
it  on  purpose.  I  really  think  I  am  beginning 
to  understand  their  ways.  I  will  just  stay  here, 
for  they  can't  be  long  now  and  they  say  it  is 
always  wise  to  keep  one's  eyes  on  one's  things," 
she  murmured  to  herself. 

By  eleven  o'clock  her  wait  had  begun  to 
grow  irksome;  so  Helen  ascended  the  stairs  to 


WAYS  OF  A  HOUSE-BOAT     137 

her  room  to  see  what  Matilda  was  doing.  She 
found  her  friend  contentedly  rocking  back  and 
forth  and  discussing  some  interesting  mission 
problems  with  her  hostess. 

4 'Why,  Matilda,  are  you  not  ready?  It  is 
a  quarter  after  eleven!"  she  exclaimed  re 
proachfully. 

"Oh,  is  it;  have  the  coolies  come?"  Miss  Ma 
tilda  asked  absent-mindedly. 

"No,"  replied  the  hostess,  "Jack  couldn't  get 
the  ones  we  usually  employ,  so  he  has  gone  to 
another  hong.  It  is  quite  a  distance  across  the 
canal,  and  they  will  probably  be  eating.  Then 
they  will  have  to  smoke  a  pipe  or  two,  so  you 
might  as  well  make  up  your  minds  to  stay  to 
tiffin."  It  seemed  the  only  thing  to  be  done, 
so  they  consented. 

By  two  o'clock  there  was  a  noisy  crowd  of 
coolies  in  the  compound,  and  Miss  Matilda  sent 
down  word  to  the  kitchen  to  her  cook  and  amah 
that  she  was  ready  to  start.  But  the  cook  was 
not  to  be  found ;  the  last  seen  of  him  was  when 
he  had  said  he  was  going  out  on  "the  street"  to 
make  some  purchases  for  the  trip.  After  being 
all  summer  in  the  mountains  with  Miss  Matil 
da,  his  wardrobe  he  felt  had  need  of  replenish 
ment.  There  was  nothing  to  do  but  wait,  for 


138  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

^*^^mm^^^^^*^^^^^^*mmi*ii~*m***mmmmm*mmm**n^~'^~m*mm**mmm~*'^^m^m'*^*'iiiii''m>'* 

they  could  not  leave  without  him  and  there  *was 
no  way  in  which  he  could  follow. 

So  the  afternoon  slipped  on  until  half  past 
four  when  Lao  Liu,  the  cook,  reappeared,  very 
much  pleased  with  himself  and  the  rakish  derby 
hat  which  he  had  bought.  As  a  sop  to  Cer 
berus,  he  presented  a  live  chicken  to  Miss  Ma 
tilda,  and  listened  with  a  placid  smile  to  the 
scolding  that  she  administered,  for  she  was  not 
to  be  placated  by  the  fowl. 

All  thought  of  leaving  that  day  had  to  be 
abandoned,  and  as  the  next  day  was  Sunday, 
they  were  forced  to  put  off  their  departure 
until  Monday  morning.  On  Saturday  night 
as  they  were  about  to  retire,  Helen  unfastened 
her  wrist-watch  with  a  dramatic  gesture  and 
handed  it  to  Miss  Matilda.  "Take  it,"  she  said, 
"and  bury  it  in  your  deepest  trunk,  for  I  can 
easily  see  I  will  never  need  it  here." 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  for  China  is  the  land 
of  contradictions,  at  half  past  eight  on  Monday 
morning  the  luggage  was  ready,  the  coolies 
collected  at  the  gate,  and  the  cook  and  amah, 
their  arms  full  of  bundles,  awaited  the  word  of 
departure.  The  shock  was  almost  greater  than 
Helen  could  bear,  and  for  the  first  time  in  near 
ly  ten  years  she  herself  was  half  an  hour  late. 


WAYS  OF  A  HOUSE-BOAT    139 

Her  one  consolation  was  that  the  cure  was  be 
ginning  to  work. 

As  they  closed  the  compound  gate  and 
plunged  down  the  narrow,  winding  street, 
Helen's  heart  failed  as  it  had  not  done  since 
she  had  sighted  the  low,  mud  shores  of  China. 
Heretofore  she  had  travelled  in  chairs  or  rick 
shas  and  the  poverty  and  dirt  had  not 
pressed  so  close  upon  her;  but  now  she  was  to 
see  things  as  they  were  with  a  vengeance,  and 
she  was  not  sure  that  she  was  going  to  like  it.  It 
was  picturesque  enough  as  far  as  the  buildings 
were  concerned.  The  street  was  so  narrow  that 
only  a  ribbon-like  strip  of  blue  sky  showed 
above,  and  the  curved  roofs,  carved  doorways, 
and  long  pendant  signs  covered  with  charac 
ters  would  rejoice  an  artist's  soul.  Helen  was 
about  to  exclaim  with  pleasure  at  the  sight, 
when  her  eyes  were  suddenly  called  back  to 
earth,  for  she  stumbled,  and  nearly  fell  head 
long  over  a  black  pig  that  was  lying  sprawled 
directly  across  her  path. 

"This  is  no  place  for  star  gazing,"  chided 
her  friend.  "You  must  look  where  you  are  go 
ing  or  you  will  land  in  a  mud-hole,  and  then 
it  would  take  more  than  Sapolio  or  Dutch 
Cleanser  to  make  you  respectable." 

Helen  could  hardly  repress  her  disgust,  but 


140 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

if  Matilda  Kellogg,  the  fastidious,  had  stood 
it  for  so  many  years,  she  at  least  would  be  game 
enough  to  tolerate  it  for  one. 

"I  do  not  want  to  be  critical,  but  it  seems 
to  me  that  your  coolies  and  all  those  others," 
pointing  to  a  group  down  the  street,  "are 
rather  sketchily  clad  for  weather  and  decency." 

"Now,  Helen,"  laughed  Miss  Matilda,  "you 
didn't  expect  Fifth  Avenue  when  you  came  to 
China,  did  you?  You'll  soon  get  used  to  such 
little  things.  I  never  notice  it  now,  though  I 
confess  to  a  turn  or  two  at  first.  Here,  wait 
a  minute;  I  am  going  to  stop  and  buy  some 
turkey  red  to  make  some  curtains  for  the  house 
boat.  If  we  cannot  be  elegant,  we  may  as  well 
be  cosy." 

Laughing  and  chatting  in  this  manner,  they 
came  down  to  the  bank  of  the  canal.  Helen 
in  truth  felt  a  little  like  whistling  to  keep  up 
her  courage ;  this  being  cut  off  from  one's  kind 
and  going  alone  into  a  not  too  friendly  coun 
try,  she  found  was  a  new  and  far  from  pleasing 
sensation. 

At  this  point  the  canal  was  very  wide,  and 
on  every  hand  as  far  as  the  eye  could  see,  were 
myriads  of  boats  of  every  size,  from  the  large, 
stately  junk  of  the  official  to  the  tiny,  clumsy 
boat  of  the  beggar. 


WAYS  OF  A  HOUSE-BOAT    141 

"Why,  all  the  world's  a  boat!"  exclaimed 
Helen.  "But  where  is  ours  and  how  can  we 
possibly  reach  it?" 

"Way  out  there!  We  shall  have  to  cross 
from  boat  to  boat  with  narrow  boards  as  gang 
ways  stretched  across.  It  really  is  a  little  dan 
gerous,"  Miss  Matilda  added  anxiously,  "for 
they  do  sometimes  go  over,  and  the  current 
just  here  is  swift." 

"Let's  ask  Lao  Liu  to  burn  an  incense  stick 
for  us  while  we  are  crossing,"  laughed  Helen. 

Miss  Matilda  did  not  reply  to  this  sally  as 
Helen  had  expected,  but  still  wore  an  anxious 
frown.  She  had  seen  a  man  drown  at  this  spot 
on  her  last  trip,  and  it  was  no  laughing  matter ; 
but  she  kept  the  knowledge  of  this  accident  to 
herself. 

By  this  time  everybody  in  the  vicinity  who 
had  nothing  to  do,  and  also  many  who  had  been 
busy,  began  to  collect  around  them.  In  China 
no  one  is  in  such  a  hurry  that  he  cannot  stop, 
look,  and  listen  whenever  any  new  thing  ap 
pears,  and  nothing  is  a  greater  treat  than  the 
sight  of  a  foreigner.  Therefore,  the  ladies  felt 
it  better  to  start  at  once  on  their  perilous  trip. 
Sometimes  the  board  would  be  as  steady  as  a 
church;  sometimes  it  would  nearly  turn  and 
they  would  have  to  jump  to  make  it,  and  some- 


142  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

times  there  would  be  no  board  at  all.  The  on 
lookers  gave  them  plenty  of  good  advice  which 
was  Greek  to  Helen*  but  she  got  on  exactly  as 
well  without  it.  After  a  great  amount  of  ex 
ertion  they  reached  their  haven  of  refuge  and 
hastened  into  the  tiny  cabin  to  rest. 

"I  never  saw  so  many  boats  nor  so  many 
people  in  my  life.  There  must  be  a  good  deal 
of  disease  among  them,  isn't  there?"  asked 
Helen. 

"There  is  plenty  of  contagious  disease  every 
where  in  China,  and  if  you  are  going  to  worry 
about  that  you  might  as  well  go  right  home, 
for  there  is  no  way  of  avoiding  exposure.  That 
boat  over  there,  for  instance,  has  smallpox  in 
it.  I  went  the  other  way  on  purpose,  but  it  was 
hardly  worth  while,  for  probably  there  was 
some  one  ill  in  nearly  every  one  we  crossed." 

"Well,"  said  Helen,  "now  at  length  we  are 
off.  I  wonder  what  time  it  is,  and  how  far  we 
will  get  to-day,"  and  she  looked  down  to  the 
place  where  her  wrist-watch  used  to  be. 

"Not  so  fast,  not  so  fast,"  replied  Miss  Ma 
tilda.  "If  there  is  not  a  favourable  wind,  and 
the  sailors  are  not  disposed,  we  may  not  go  at 
all  to-day;  besides  which  the  sail  has  to  be 
raised,  the  incense  burned,  the  firecrackers  set 
off,  the  drum  sounded,  and,  perhaps,  a  chicken 


WAYS  OF  A  HOUSE-BOAT     143 

sacrificed  before  we  can  start.  All  the  evil 
spirits  must  be  propitiated,  or  our  voyage  may 
end  in  disaster." 

"And  you  a  foreign  missionary!"  gasped 
her  friend.  "If  there  is  no  wind,  why  did  we 
leave  a  perfectly  good  house  thus  early  in  the 
morning  and  hurry  down  amidst  all  this  dis 
ease,  and  these  eyes?"  She  added  this  as  she 
looked  up  and  discovered  curious  eyes  in 
every  window. 

"My  dear,  I  do  not  own  this  boat,  and  so 
cannot  prevent  it;  if  I  tried  we  would  prob 
ably  be  mobbed.  Anyway,  you  cannot  change 
people's  superstitions  by  force,  but  only  by 
conviction.  As  for  your  other  question,  the 
wind  is  a  good  one  for  all  I  know  to  the  con 
trary,  and  even  if  it  is  not,  it  may  change 
at  any  moment;  and  in  this  country  if  you 
ever  want  to  get  anywhere  you  must  be  on  the 
spot." 

"You  are  right  as  always,  and  I  am  a  very, 
very  tender-foot,"  smiled  Helen;  "I  wanted  to 
drift,  and  drifting  let  it  be." 

Having  given  orders  to  sail  as  soon  as  possi 
ble,  Miss  Matilda  started  to  do  the  honours  of 
their  new  home. 

"This  first  cubby  hole  you  enter  on  leaving 
the  bow  is  the  kitchen  where  Lao  Liu  holds 


144  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

sway,  although  he  does  almost  all  the  cooking 
on  deck  over  the  charcoal  brazier.  Those 
chickens  you  see  are  alive  and  we  are  to  sub 
sist  on  them  throughout  the  trip.  Do  you 
wonder  that  they  look  pensive  ?  Chinese  chick 
ens  are  likely  to  look  that  way  for  some  rea 


son." 


"Do  you  always  travel  with  Lao  Liu  like 
a  sort  of  human  dress  suitcase?"  asked  Helen. 

"Always,  he  looks  after  our  fifty  odd  par 
cels  and  does  the  bargaining  and  the  cooking  as 
well,  for  I  cannot  eat  the  native  food.  I  pay 
him  three  dollars  a  month  and  he  supplies  his 
own  meals.  He  is  supposed  to  make  a  pretty 
good  thing  of  it,  and  is  a  dandy  as  well.  Just 
notice  the  rakish  angle  of  that  derby  hat  that 
we  waited  all  Saturday  afternoon  for  him  to 
buy." 

In  the  cabin  the  amah  had  almost  settled 
their  belongings.  Helen  now  began  to  see  the 
necessity  for  all  the  pile  of  luggage.  She 
found  that  Miss  Matilda  had  to  supply  every 
thing:  camp  cots,  bedding,  knives,  forks, 
plates,  tablecloths,  towels,  wash-basins,  and 
many  other  necessities.  No  wonder  Lao  Liu 
was  an  essential.  The  cabin  was  to  be  their 
bedroom,  living-  and  dining-room,  while  next 


IX    CHINA    XO    OXE    IS    IX    SUCH    A    HURRY    THAT    HE    CAXXOT 
STOP,  LOOK,  AXD  LISTEX    WHEXEVER  AXY  XEW  THIXG  APPEARS 


A  FLEET  OF   HOUSE -BOATS 
UXDER   WAY 


WAYS  OF  A  HOUSE-BOAT     145 

it  was  a  tiny  closet  which  they  could  use  as  a 
dressing-room. 

"Just  beyond  that  thin  board  partition  are 
the  quarters  of  the  boatman's  family,"  ex 
plained  Miss  Matilda,  as  they  investigated 
this  apartment.  "There  are  many  cracks  and 
holes  in  the  boards,  so  I  have  hung  up  those 
curtains  to  keep  off  the  all-pervading  eye  that 
is  ever  with  us  in  the  Orient." 

Having  thoroughly  investigated  their  quar 
ters,  they  unpacked  the  remainder  of  their 
belongings  and  settled  themselves  down  in  the 
living-room. 

"As  I  gave  you  my  watch,  and  said  to  my 
self  that  time  was  nothing  to  me,  I  suppose 
it  is  inconsistent  to  state  that  certain  inner 
symptoms  make  me  feel  that  tiffin  should  be 
prepared,"  Helen  remarked  an  hour  or  two 
later. 

Miss  Matilda,  who  had  no  quarrel  with 
time,  pulled  out  her  watch  and  exclaimed, 
"Why,  it  is  a  quarter  after  two,  and  Lao  Liu 
has  not  begun  to  get  ready.  No  wonder  you 
are  hungry!"  And  she  hurried  out  on  deck 
to  get  things  started. 

At  three  they  sat  down  to  a  nicely  cooked 
meal,  and  as  they  did  so  the  beating  of  a  drum 
and  the  explosion  of  firecrackers  told  them 


146 FOREIGN  MAGIC 

that  they  were  finally  under  way.  The  breeze 
caught  the  sail,  the  water  rippled  against  the 
prow,  and  they  went  along  merrily  for  four 
or  five  li. 

"If  this  alarming  speed  keeps  up  I  have 
faith  to  believe  that  we  will  get  to  Feng  Ti  Fu 
a  week  or  two  before  it  is  time  for  me  to  turn 
my  face  toward  home,"  said  Helen  laughingly. 

The  words  were  scarcely  spoken,  when 
there  was  a  grating  sound;  then  the  boat  came 
to  such  a  sudden  stop  that  they  were  almost 
thrown  to  the  floor.  Tremendous  excitement 
and  shouting  ensued  with  a  rushing  about  the 
deck.  When  the  confusion  had  subsided  a 
little  they  found  that  they  had  run  on  a  sand 
bar  and  it  took  nearly  an  hour  to  get  them  off. 
Then,  after  a  good  deal  of  discussion,  the 
master  of  the  boat  decided  to  come  to  anchor 
for  the  night.  There  was  a  curve  in  the  canal 
directly  in  front  of  them,  and  if  they  went  on 
the  wind  would  be  dead  ahead;  and  besides, 
a  village  was  at  hand  which  would  make  a 
protection  through  the  hours  of  darkness. 
Helen  protested  mildly  that  such  dillydallying 
was  worse  than  a  schedule,  but  Miss  Matilda 
agreed  with  the  boatmen.  She  knew  more  of 
the  dangers  of  pirates  and  bandits  than  did 
Helen,  and  did  not  care  to  be  caught  by  dark- 


WAYS  OF  A  HOUSE-BOAT     147 

ness  between  two  villages  where  they  would 
be  alone  against  marauders. 

Very  early  that  evening  they  retired  to  bed, 
for  a  chill  had  fallen  with  sunset  that  made 
the  thought  of  warm  blankets  welcome.  It 
took  some  time  to  make  everything  snug  and 
safe,  for  there  were  no  locks  on  the  doors  arid 
they  had  to  be  secured  by  ropes.  When  Helen 
gathered  from  a  chance  remark  of  Matilda's 
that  these  precautions  were  rather  needless  as 
pirates  usually  captured  the  whole  boat  and 
carried  it  off,  getting  rid  of  the  passengers 
in  various  ways,  a  distinct  shiver  went  down 
her  spine.  She  did  not  make  any  inquiries 
about  what  these  ways  were,  thinking  that 
where  ignorance  was  bad  enough,  knowledge 
would  be  even  worse.  Her  great  comfort  was 
that  her  friend  had  taken  the  trip  many  times 
and  was  still  alive  to  be  frightened. 

All  through  the  time  of  her  preparations 
she  was  disturbed  by  the  quarrelling  of  the 
boat  people.  The  wife  of  one  of  the  boatmen 
had  a  red  hot  temper  and  her  voice  was  sel 
dom  still,  but  in  the  quiet  of  evening  it  seemed 
to  echo  and  re-echo  through  the  night.  Miss 
Matilda  was  evidently  used  to  this  sort  of 
lullaby  and  soon  fell  asleep.  Not  so  Helen; 
she  twisted  and  turned  and  put  her  hands 


148  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

up  over  her  ears  without  much  success  until 
the  voice  stopped.  She  was  just  falling  into 
her  first  sweet  doze  when  she  was  startled 
awake  by  the  sound  of  scratching  on  the  door 
at  her  head.  She  raised  herself  and  peered 
out  into  the  darkness;  that  surely  was  the 
scrape  of  burglars'  tools.  She  waited  quietly 
at  first,  but  the  noise  kept  furtively  on  and 
she  felt  in  a  moment  that  she  must  scream. 

"Matilda!  Matilda!  what  is  that?"  she  said 
in  a  hoarse  whisper. 

"What  is  what?"  came  the  sleepy  answer. 

"That  scraping  sound;  do  you  not  hear  it?" 

Then  there  was  a  scream  and  Matilda 
bounded  from  her  bed.  "Helen,  it  is  a  rat;  it 
ran  right  over  me." 

The  boat  was  indeed  alive  with  rats.  The 
friends  scarcely  closed  their  eyes  all  night, 
for  no  sooner  would  they  drop  off  than  a  rat 
would  run  up  the  wall,  or  drop  from  the  ceil 
ing  to  the  floor  with  a  thud.  Finally,  in  des 
peration,  Matilda  arose  and  searched  for  some 
mosquito  nets  tacked  on  frames;  these  at 
least  would  keep  the  intruders  off  their  faces. 
As  the  night  wore  away  Helen  decided  that 
the  only  blessing  she  could  find  in  this  dis 
comfort  was  that  to-morrow  morning  she 
would  not  need  to  arise  at  the  first  stroke  of 


WAYS  OF  A  HOUSE-BOAT    149 

seven,  breakfast  at  half  after  seven,  prepare  a 
lecture  at  eight  and  be  in  the  classroom  prompt 
ly  at  nine.  She  could  make  up  all  this  lost 
sleep  with  never  a  pang  of  conscience. 

Before  leaving  the  village  on  the  next  morn 
ing,  they  purchased  the  leanest,  hungriest  cat 
that  they  could  find.  She  looked  as  though  it 
would  take  scores  of  rats  to  satisfy  her  appe 
tite.  She  proved  a  valuable  asset  and  the  noc 
turnal  visits  of  the  rats  steadily  decreased. 

"I  wish  we  could  find  as  successful  a  cure 
for  the  boat-woman's  voice,"  Helen  remarked 
very  often. 

As  the  days  went  quietly  by  this  woman 
was  the  only  disturbing  element,  so  to  speak, 
for  in  spite  of  the  fear  of  pirates,  their  voy 
age  passed  uneventfully.  Helen  soon  grew 
accustomed  to  the  shouts  and  screams  of  fEe 
boatmen  as  they  delivered  and  executed  or 
ders;  she  found  it  was  their  method  of  letting 
off  steam,  but  she  never  got  over  resenting  the 
quarrelling  of  the  woman.  It  was  inefficient, 
she  felt,  as  it  never  seemed  to  get  anywhere. 
In  other  ways  the  traveller's  education  pro 
gressed  rapidly.  She  was  very  philosophical 
when  she  heard  that  the  trip  would  take  any 
where  from  ten  days  to  three  weeks.  She 
soon  learned  the  reason  of  this,  for  on  some 


15Q  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

days  they  sailed  many  li,  and  on  others  the 
wind  was  contrary  and  the  river  they  had  now 
entered  was  winding,  so  that  their  progress 
scarcely  seemed  to  exceed  that  of  the  famous 
tortoise. 

"The  turtle  eventually  arrived,  you  remem 
ber,"  said  Miss  Matilda,  when  defending  this 
mode  of  locomotion  against  the  taunts  of  her 
friend. 

"I  have  learned  a  great  deal,  but  I  have  yet 
to  understand  the  boatmen's  mental  pro 
cesses,"  said  Helen  one  day.  "I  do  not  really 
care,  because  it  makes  no  difference  to  me 
when  we  arrive,  and  I  would  enjoy  another 
month  of  this  care-free  existence,  but  I  cannot 
help  wondering  by  what  principle  they  start 
on  some  mornings  at  four  and  work  all  day 
until  six,  and  on  others  we  weigh  anchor  at 
nine  and  tie  up  by  three  in  the  afternoon.  Do 
you  know?" 

"No;  sometimes  it's  the  wind,  and  some 
times  the  desire  for  sleep,  I  suppose,"  said 
Miss  Matilda. 

The  last  day  of  their  voyage  seemed  to  drag 
terribly ;  the  boatmen  simply  would  not  hurry, 
and  Miss  Matilda,  eager  to  reach  her  home, 
for  once  tried  to  urge  them  on.  All  persua 
sions  were  useless,  and  at  length  she  aban- 


WAYS  OF  A  HOUSE-BOAT     151 

doned  the  attempt.  Though  the  wind  seemed 
propitious,  the  sailors  tied  up  at  a  village  at 
noon  and  lay  down  on  their  deck  to  smoke  and 
gamble.  As  was  her  custom,  Miss  Matilda 
gathered  a  few  leaflets  together  and  started 
off  to  talk  to  the  women  of  a  hamlet  which 
they  saw  in  the  distance.  She  asked  Helen 
to  accompany  her,  but  she  refused,  saying  that 
she  would  take  a  nap. 

After  a  quarter  of  an  hour  or  so  Helen 
noticed  that  the  family  quarrel  that  always 
raged  while  the  boat  was  anchored,  was  grow 
ing  hotter  and  hotter,  and  she  tried  in  vain 
to  get  some  sleep.  The  people  might  have 
been  in  the  same  room,  so  plainly  could  she 
hear  them.  Then  followed  a  sudden  lull  for 
a  few  minutes,  and  just  as  she  was  congratu 
lating  herself  that  it  was  all  over,  there  arose 
the  most  blood-curdling  screams  from  the 
bank.  This  was  too  much!  The  woman  was 
surely  being  murdered,  and  Helen  ran  out 
on  deck  to  find  a  boatman  beating  his  wife's 
head  against  the  river  bank.  Her  hair  was 
streaming  down  her  back,  her  eyes  bulging, 
and  Helen  felt  that  in  a  moment  all  would  be 
over.  A  crowd  had  collected  and  were  watch 
ing  open-mouthed,  but  not  one  finger  was 
lifted  in  the  wife's  behalf.  Helen  had  not  a 


152  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

word  of  Chinese  and,  of  course,  the  people 
knew  no  English;  but,  lifting  her  voice  as 
loudly  as  she  could,  and  pointing  with  an  ac 
cusing  hand  at  the  man,  she  commanded  him 
to  stop.  Something  in  her  manner  conveyed 
the  meaning  her  words  could  not,  and  in  his 
surprise  the  man  let  go  his  hold  and  the 
woman  retreated  hastily  toward  the  village. 

Very  weak  and  trembling,  for  she  did  not 
know  what  the  crowd  might  do,  Helen  retired 
into  the  cabin.  She  felt,  however,  that  a 
Carnegie  medal  was  certainly  due  her  for 
saving  a  human  life.  When  Matilda  returned 
she  recounted  her  story  with  many  thrills,  but 
Miss  Kellogg's  reply  completely  dashed  her. 

"I  heard  the  story  as  I  came  along.  I 
think  perhaps  you  might  better  have  left  the 
man  alone,  for  the  woman  wanted  to  go  to  the 
village  to  buy  opium  and  he  was  trying  to 
stop  her.  Now  she  is  gone,  and  we  will  have 
to  wait  for  her  to  return,  as  it  would  not  do  to 
leave  her  here  alone.  I  am  afraid  it  will  be 
impossible  now  to  make  Feng  Ti  Fu  to-night. 
I  am  awfully  sprry  too,  as  I  am  anxious  to 
show  you  my  women ;  they  are  so  quiet  and  re 
fined,  a  great  contrast  to  this  one." 

Helen  could  not  refrain  from  a  laugh  at  the 
anticlimax  to  her  exploit.  "Anyway,  I  think 


WAYS  OF  A  HOUSE-BOAT    153 

I  may  consider  myself  a  complete  cure,"  she 
said.  "Think  how  I  would  have  fretted  six 
months  ago  over  this  delay,  and  now  the  only 
thing  I  mind  is  to  have  disappointed  you." 

"It  is  as  well  you  came  this  year,"  her 
friend  replied.  "Next  year  the  railroad  will 
be  finished  and  we  will  make  the  trip  in  ten 
hours  instead  of  three  weeks,  and  you  would 
then  have  to  do  it  all  by  the  time-table." 

On  the  next  morning,  with  a  splendid  wind, 
they  sailed  into  view  of  East  and  West  moun 
tains,  and  saw  the  city  of  Feng  Ti  Fu  nestled 
at  their  feet.  Then  Helen,  having  mastered 
the  lesson  that  time  and  house-boats  wait  for 
everybody,  regretfully  turned  her  back  on  the 
river  and  went  ashore. 

It  was  on  a  very  similar  morning,  ten 
months  later,  that  she  entered  the  rocky  por 
tals  of  San  Francisco  harbour,  and  felt  another 
pang  of  regret  that  this  voyage,  too,  was  over 
and  her  trip  to  the  East  nothing  but  a  plea 
sant  memory.  All  the  way  across  the  conti 
nent,  with  a  superior  smile  she  watched  the  hur 
rying  crowds.  "How  little  they  realise  the  plea 
sure  of  living  in  their  hurry  to  achieve,"  she 
thought.  "But  I  can  never,  never  forget." 

On  stepping  out  of  the  Grand  Central  Ter 
minal  she  saw  that  the  car  which  she  wanted 


154  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

was  standing  nearly  half  a  block  away.  The 
people  who  had  come  off  the  train  started  to 
run,  and  picking  up  her  grip  she  ran  too,  and 
while  she  was  climbing  on  the  platform,  the 
conductor  shouted,  "Step  lively,  please!" 

As  Helen  seated  herself,  she  looked  out  of 
the  rear  door  of  her  trolley  to  see  another  car 
which  she  could  have  taken  standing  directly 
behind.  By  her  running  she  had  saved  ex 
actly  thirty  seconds.  When  college  opened 
that  autumn  the  very  first  lecture  that  Helen 
delivered  to  a  class  of  expectant,  eager  fresh 
men,  was  entitled  "The  Force  of  Habit." 


FOREIGN  MAGIC 

PART! 

IT  may  as  well  be  admitted  in  the  begin 
ning  that  Wang  Sao  Tze  was  no  angel. 
Her  neighbours  would  say,  with  a  shake  of  the 
head,  when  her  shrill  scoldings  disturbed  the 
peace  of  the  hamlet,  "There  is  no  doubt  that 
Wang  Sao  Tze's  pechih  (disposition)  is  very 
bad."  Her  husband  certainly  thought  so,  and 
he  had  cause  to  know. 

Like  many  other  persons  with  stormy  tem 
pers,  Wang  Sao  Tze  possessed  a  capable  pair 
of  hands  and  a  clear  brain;  therein,  perhaps, 
lay  the  difficulty,  for  her  husband  was  noto 
riously  weak,  and  without  her  strong  hand  at 
the  helm  the  family  fortunes  would  have  been 
wrecked  long  ago.  She  was  decidedly  the 
captain  of  her  own  soul  and  of  her  husband's 
as  well,  not  to  mention  all  the  little  Wangs. 
The  village  elders  murmured,  however,  when 

155 


156  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

she  sought  to  apply  successful  home  tactics 
to  community  affairs. 

One  morning  when  the  spring  wheat  in  the 
fields  surrounding  the  Twin  Dog  Village  was 
a  sea  of  green,  Wang  Sao  Tze  stood  in 
her  doorway  talking  to  an  itinerant  quack 
doctor  in  stentorian  tones :  "I  have  taken  your 
powdered  dragon's  bones  and  your  snake 
fangs,  and  the  pain  is  worse,  I  tell  you;  and 
now  you  want  to  stick  red  hot  needles  into  my 
side,  which  will  increase  the  agony  tenfold! 
It  is  all  a  game  to  bleed  me  of  cash,  and  I 
want  no  more  of  you."  Turning  to  the  oven, 
she  raised  a  dish  of  boiling  fat  and  threatened 
to  pour  its  contents  over  the  doctor,  who  beat 
a  hasty  but  highly  strategic  retreat  down  the 
street. 

But  Wang  Sao  Tze  was  stopped  in  her 
first  impulse  of  pursuit  by  a  most  unexpected 
sight.  Coming  down  the  crooked  lane,  which 
was  to  the  citizens  of  the  hamlet  what  the 
Champs  Elysees  is  to  the  Parisians,  was  a  tiny 
procession.  In  the  lead  were  two  leisurely- 
going  donkeys  carefully  watching  their  steps 
for  fear  of  mud-holes,  while  a  collection  of 
shouting  boys  and  barking  dogs  brought  up 
the  rear,  making  themselves  generally  ob 
noxious. 


FOREIGN  MAGIC 157 

What  turned  Wang  Sao  Tze  almost  to 
stone,  however,  and  froze  the  torrent  of  abuse 
on  her  lips,  was  the  sight  of  an  unmistakably 
foreign  woman  riding  upon  the  first  donkey. 
The  fact  that  she  wore  a  Chinese  coat,  hat, 
skirt,  and  shoes,  could  not  disguise  from  sharp 
hostile  eyes  that  her  hair  was  brown  and  wavy, 
and  her  features  Occidental. 

Many  a  time  and  oft  had  Wang  Sao  Tze 
rehearsed  to  an  admiring  group  of  villagers 
what  her  course  of  action  and  conversation 
would  be — if  screaming  at  the  top  of  one's 
lungs  may  be  called  conversation — should  a 
foreigner  ever  have '  the  hardihood  to  show 
himself  on  their  streets.  That  the  first  visitor 
might  be  a  woman  never  had  occurred  to  her; 
but  there  seemed  no  reason  to  think  that  the 
same  tactics  would  not  be  effectual  in  this 
case. 

While  she  was  adapting  her  mental  proc 
esses  to  meet  the  new  condition,  the  stranger 
had  slipped  from  her  donkey,  and,  standing 
directly  in  front  of  Wang  Sao  Tze,  she  made 
a  deep  bow  that  could  have  been  learned  only 
in  China's  first  circles.  In  a  sweet,  low  voice, 
without  one  trace  of  fear,  she  inquired: 

"May  I  ask  your  honourable  name?" 

Startled  at  being  greeted  with  such  perfect 


158  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

courtesy,  Wang  Sao  Tze's  voice,  which  had 
been  about  to  scream  at  a  high  pitch,  "Yang 
Gwie  Tze!"  (Foreign  Devil),  cracked  as  she 
tried  to  lower  it  to  the  tone  required  in  polite 
society. 

"My  humble  name  is  Wang,"  she  said. 

Perceiving  her  advantage,  the  lady  began 
to  ply  her  with  questions  so  rapidly  that  she 
prevented  the  Chinese  woman  from  putting 
into  practice  any  hostile  intent.  At  last  she 
inquired,  "Is  there  no  inn  in  the  village  where 
I  may  buy  a  cup  of  tea?  I  have  travelled 
many  li  to-day  and  have  many  still  to  go,  and 
I  am  very  thirsty." 

Greatly  to  her  own  surprise,  and  still  more 
so  to  that  of  her  neighbours,  who  had.  gathered 
at  a  safe  distance,  Wang  Sao  Tze  found  her 
self  saying  in  a  voice  of  honeyed  sweetness, 
"If  the  foreign  lady  will  forgive  my  great 
presumption,  I  would  ask  her  to  enter  my 
unworthy  door  and  drink  my  tea,  though  it  is 
not  fit  to  offer  a  great  taitai  (lady)  like  your 
self." 

The  house  stood  in  a  shabby  court  and  was 
a  poor  place  indeed,  with  its  mud  walls  and 
straw  thatched  roof  and  earthen  floor.  It  had 
no  windows  and  the  only  air  permitted  to 
enter  came  in  by  way  of  the  open  door,  or 


FOREIGN  MAGIC  159 

through  chinks  in  the  walls.  A  forlorn  dog 
worried  a  bone  in  the  corner,  and  a  black  pig, 
to  whom  water  was  an  unknown  quantity, 
made  itself  at  home  in  a  pile  of  refuse  at  one 
end  of  the  court ;  while  in  the  other,  a  donkey 
raised  a  discordant  sound  of  welcome  to  his 
comrades  in  the  street.  From  the  beams  of 
the  ceiling  strings  of  onions,  garlic,  and  other 
vegetables  were  hung,  and  dried  hams  and 
sausages  advertised  the  fact  that  Wang  Sao 
Tze  was  a  thrifty  manager  of  domestic  af 
fairs  who  looked  well  to  the  ways  of  her  house 
hold.  On  one  side  of  the  room  the  kitchen 
god  held  sway,  and  not  far  from  it  was  the 
ancestral  tablet.  Beyond  these  aids  to  wor 
ship  there  was  no  attempt  at  adornment  of 
any  kind  unless  a  coffin,  which  stood  in  a  po 
sition  where  the  eye  fell  on  it  immediately  up 
on  entering  the  door,  could  be  so  called.  It 
is  certainly  true  that  Wang  Sao  Tze  regarded 
this  coffin  as  the  apple  of  her  eye,  for  was 
it  not  a  pleasant  reminder  that  her  decent 
burial  was  assured  ?  Two  rude  benches,  a  table, 
and  an  oven  completed  the  furnishings  of  the 
interior. 

With  an  unconscious  hospitality  that  was 
really  beautiful,  Wang  Sao  Tze  bowed  her 
guest  to  the  seat  of  honour,  while  the  latter, 


160  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

after  duly  protesting  her  unworthiness,  finally 
accepted  it.  Then  Wang  Sao  Tze,  all  her 
prejudices  forgotten,  bestirred  herself  dn  the 
preparation  of  tea,  while  the  staring  villagers 
almost  asphyxiated  the  two  women  by  crowd 
ing  around  the  door,  and  effectually  shutting 
off  the  sweet  May  breeze. 

Question  after  question  was  poured  forth  up 
on  the  tired  traveller,  who  answered  with  an 
unending  patience.  To  their  great  amazement 
her  listeners  had  found  out  that  she  had 
reached  the  marriageable  age  of  thirty  without 
accomplishing  matrimony,  an  unheard-of  situ 
ation  to  their  minds.  She  claimed  to  have 
come  to  China  to  tell  them  some  message  of 
good  news ;  exactly  what  it  was  they  could  not 
understand.  And  one  old  dame  voiced  the 
feelings  of  all  when  she  exclaimed,  "You 
might  better  far  have  spent  the  money  on  a 
dowry,  for  I  hear  it  costs  at  least  one  hundred 
taels  to  come  from  your  country,  and  you 
could  have  made  a  fitting  marriage  with  that 
large  sum." 

In  the  street  the  stranger's  donkey  boy  held 
another  audience  under  his  spell  by  marvel 
lous  accounts  of  the  manners  and  possessions  of 
the  foreigners  of  Feng  Ti  Fu.  The  story  of 
the  wonders  lost  nothing  in  the  telling,  and 


THE  POPULAR  VEHICLE   HOLDS  A   HOMEWARD-BOUND  PATIEXT 
REJOICING  IN  THE   HOSPITAL   MAGIC 


FOREIGN  MAGIC 161 

as  the  guest  made  her  final  bow  of  gratitude 
she  heard  him  say,  "Oh,  yes,  he  is  a  very  great 
doctor,  indeed;  he  makes  the  blind  to  see  and 
the  lame  to  walk.  And  once,  they  say — it  was 
before  my  time  and  I  cannot  vouch  for  it  my 
self — he  raised  a  man  from  the  dead." 

At  these  astounding  words  Wang  Sao  Tze 
pricked  up  her  ears,  and,  turning  to  the  lady, 
asked  in  an  eager  whisper,  "Is  this  what  he 
says  true?  Could  he  cure  me  too?  I  have  a 
terrible  pain  in  my  side  which  grows  worse 
every  day.  I  asked  the  old  quack  here  to  cure 
it,  but  he  is  not  worth  a  string  of  cash" 

"Come  to  the  hospital,  Wang  Sao  Tze;  my 
sister  is  also  a  doctor  there,  and  between  the 
two  of  them  I  think  that  they  could  help  you ; 
but  if  they  cannot,  they  will  tell  you  truly." 

This  was  too  sudden  a  step  for  Wang  Sao 
Tze,  who  a  short  time  ago  had  only  been  too 
eager  for  an  opportunity  to  revile  all  for 
eigners.  She  shook  her  head.  "My  husband 
would  never  allow  it,"  she  said,  with  a  sudden 
meekness  that  would  have  been  very  laughable 
to  one  who  knew  her  well. 

As  the  foreigner  waved  a  farewell  to  the 
little  group,  she  said  to  Wang  Sao  Tze,  "If 
you  ever  want  a  friend,  come  to  me,  Wang 
Sao  Tze."  Such  kindly  words  had  never  fal-> 


162  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

len  on  this  woman's  ears  before,  and  she  re 
peated  them  over  and  over  again  to  herself, 
saying,  "I  believe  she  really  meant  it;  she  did 
not  say  it  to  be  polite." 

For  many  days  thereafter  the  stranger's 
visit  was  the  wonder  of  the  village,  and  in  the 
warm  evenings  the  women  would  gather 
about  their  doors  and  gossip  about  this  for 
eigner,  who  had  come  to  them  out  of  the  un 
known  to  be  so  quickly  swallowed  up  again. 
Only  Wang  Sao  Tze  listened  a  little  apart, 
thinking  of  her  new  friend  and  pondering 
pleasant  words  in  her  heart. 

In  the  months  that  followed  the  harvest  was 
garnered,  the  autumn  crops  were  sown,  and 
the  village  life  continued  the  same  routine  that 
it  had  known  for  the  last  two  thousand  years. 
No  transformation  could  be  noticed  in  Wang 
Sao  Tze ;  in  fact,  she  daily  grew  more  unbear 
able,  and  her  husband  made  it  a  point  to  ab 
sent  himself  as  much  as  possible,  although 
one  had  to  go  a  long  distance  to  get  away 
from  the  sound  of  her  voice  when  once  she 
began  her  revilings.  If  by  chance  in  one  of 
her  rages  she  started  down  the  street,  strong 
men  would  quail  and  as  quietly  as  possible 
slink  out  of  her  path. 

No  one  realised,  not  even  she  herself,  that  the 


FOREIGN  MAGIC  163 

increasing  pain  which  she  endured  was  in  part 
the  cause  of  her  ungovernable  temper.  Fre 
quently  she  thought  of  the  hospital,  but  al 
ways  she  dismissed  the  idea,  for  who  can  mea 
sure  the  courage  it  would  take  for  a  woman 
of  her  condition,  who  had  never  been  ten  li 
away  from  her  own  village,  to  trust  herself  to 
aliens  ? 

At  length  one  day  her  husband  found  her 
stretched  unconscious  on  the  floor.  True,  she 
soon  regained  consciousness,  but  this  attack 
crystallised  her  resolution ;  as  soon  as  she  could 
speak,  she  turned  to  her  husband  and  weakly 
announced,  "I  am  going  to  the  foreign  hos 
pital  at  Feng  Ti  Fu." 

Wang  Si  Fu  fairly  gasped  with  astonish 
ment;  of  the  many  surprises  his  wife  had 
sprung  upon  him,  this  was  the  most  startling. 
"They  will  cast  the  evil  eye  on  you  and  on  the 
whole  village,"  he  cried,  "and  what  is  more, 
it  is  not  fitting,  and  I  will  never  allow  it." 

That  was  enough  for  Wang  Sao  Tze;  she 
had  meant  to  throw  out  the  suggestion  as  a 
feeler,  and  if  her  husband  had  agreed  she 
would  have  let  the  matter  drop.  Such  oppo 
sition  was  not  to  be  submitted  to  for  a  mo 
ment,  and  she  immediately  set  about  prepa 
rations  for  her  departure.  With  an  absolutely 


164  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

un-Oriental  swiftness  she  put  her  household 
in  order.  The  children  were  left  in  the  care  of 
her  daughter-in-law,  for  she  lived  on  the  same 
court  and  could  easily  manage  both  homes. 

On  the  following  morning  Wang  Sao  Tze 
mounted  their  donkey;  her  bundle  of  clothes 
was  placed  behind  her  back,  and  she  intimated 
to  her  husband,  who  was  to  lead  the  steed,  that 
she  was  ready  to  depart.  A  few  firecrackers 
— they  were  very  few — were  set  off  to  propi 
tiate  the  evil  spirits  and  to  ensure  a  prosper 
ous  journey  and  a  safe  return.  The  donkey 
did  not  like  the  noise  and  started  at  such  a 
brisk  trot  that  Wang  Si  Fu  had  difficulty  in 
keeping  up  with  him,  and  this  cut  off  all  pos 
sibility  of  conversation,  which  under  the  cir 
cumstances  was  just  as  well. 

They  had  made  a  very  early  start,  and  the 
sun  had  not  yet  arisen  when  they  were  well 
on  their  road ;  by  ten  of  the  clock  the  walls  of 
Feng  Ti  Fu  came  in  sight,  and  at  half  after 
ten  exactly,  they  drew  up  at  the  gate  of  the 
hospital.  Wang  Sao  Tze  was  absolutely  un 
moved  as  far  as  her  outward  expression  went, 
but  Wang  Si  Fu  was  fairly  green  with  fear; 
he  breathed  very  hard  and  his  hand  shook  as 
he  knocked  on  the  gate  at  his  wife's  bidding. 
For  now  were  they  not  about  to  enter  the 


FOREIGN  MAGIC 165 

lion's  den  indeed,  and  who  knew  how  soon 
their  bones  would  be  ground  into  fine  white 
powder  ? 

A  bowing  gatekeeper  threw  the  door  back 
and,  after  directing  Wang  Si  Fu  as  to  where 
he  might  take  the  donkey,  he  pointed  up  the 
long  stone  steps  that  led  to  the  woman's  en 
trance.  Wang  Sao  Tze  wearily  followed  his 
directions.  As  she  toiled  up  the  steps  she 
saw  coming  out  of  the  hospital  a  familiar 
form,  and  recognised  the  face  of  the  foreign 
lady  whom  she  had  seen  so  many  months 
before. 

"Oh,  Miss  Waring,  I've  come,  I've  come!" 
she  called.  For  a  moment  the  foreigner  hes 
itated;  who  was  this  woman  who  evidently 
thought  that  her  whole  happiness  was  bound 
up  in  the  fact  that  she  had  come  to  the  hos 
pital?  Then  she  recognised  Wang  Sao  Tze's 
forceful  features,  and  going  eagerly  forward, 
she  joyfully  cried,  "I  am  glad  that  you 
wanted  a  friend,  Wang  Sao  Tze,  and  came 
to  find  me."  From  that  moment  she  captured 
Wang  Sao  Tze's  heart,  and  banished  her  fear 
entirely. 

In  Anne  Waring's  company  the  dreaded 
examination  was  easy,  and  when  the  doctor 
announced  that  her  case  was  serious  but  cur- 


166  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

able,  requiring,  however,  an  operation  and  sev 
eral  weeks  and  perhaps  months  of  treatment, 
she  consented  without  a  word.  As  briefly  as 
need  be  she  ordered  her  husband  home,  saying 
he  could  expect  her  when  he  saw  her. 

For  the  first  day  or  two  all  went  merrily, 
everything  was  so  new  and  strange  and  com 
fortable  withal,  Wang  Sao  Tze's  temper  was 
lulled  to  sleep,  and  no  one  suspected  its  sharp 
power.  Every  morning  there  was  a  short 
service,  and  Wang  Sao  Tze  listened  as  though 
in  a  daze,  although  she  liked  the  music  and  the 
sweet  voice  of  her  friend  and  her  winsome 
smile.  She  was  shown  a  brightly  coloured 
picture-card  and  told  she  could  have  it  for  her 
own  if  she  would  learn  a  verse  of  a  hymn,  which 
one  of  the  children  in  the  ward  offered  to 
teach  her.  The  gay  colours  seemed  to  her  the 
most  beautiful  thing  she  had  ever  seen,  and 
so  she  eagerly  consented. 

One  morning,  however,  in  passing  her,  one 
of  the  women  spilled  a  bowl  of  hot  tea  on 
Wang  Sao  Tze's  card.  Then  the  tempest 
broke ;  the  hospital  had  never  heard  anything 
to  equal  it ;  the  storm  of  rage  and  abuse  would 
have  been  almost  artistic  had  it  not  been  so 
frightful.  The  whole  ward  quailed  before  it; 
dying  patients  sat  up  in  their  beds,  while  any 


FOREIGN  MAGIC 167 

i'"mr^^^mi^^^^i^~ii~~~~~mm*mm*m^™m~mMm~m*~*:'~*^imr*m~^^^m^^m'^^vi,^^^^^^t 

one  in  her  vicinity,  who  was  able  to  walk,  fled. 

The  foreigners  were  sent  for,  and  Wang 
Sao  Tze,  inwardly  pleased  at  the  sensation 
she  was  causing,  and  beside  herself  with  rage, 
kept  growing  more  violent  every  minute.  So 
noisy  was  she  that  she  did  not  hear  a  door 
open  behind  her,  and  was  quite  startled  when 
a  gentle  hand  was  laid  on  her  arm  and  she 
beheld  her  foreign  friend.  This  friend's  ex 
pression  made  Wang  Sao  Tze  stop  a  moment; 
it  was  not  fear,  that  she  was  used  to  seeing, 
but  a  look  of  disappointment  and  grief,  and  al 
most  of  abhorrence. 

"Wang  Sao  Tze,  be  still!"  said  her  friend 
in  a  firm  voice.  "Are  you  not  ashamed  to  have 
any  respectable  person  hear  such  vile  words? 
How  can  you  bear  to  have  those  children 
know  that  you  have  those  loathsome  thoughts? 
[You  will  have  to  go  home  without  being  cured, 
for  we  cannot  have  such  things  said  here." 

Now,  all  her  life  Wang  Sao  Tze  had  been 
accustomed  to  have  people  cower  before  her, 
and  she  considered  her  rages  rather  clever. 
To  have  them  spoken  of  in  this  way  was  an 
unpleasant  surprise,  and  she  started  again,  but 
the  hand  was  still  firm  on  her  arm. 

"Come  with  me!"  she  was  commanded,  and 
she  was  pushed  into  a  small  room. 


168  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

"I  shall  lock  you  in  here  until  you  are  your 
self  again;  remember  the  way  you  are  acting 
is  not  the  custom  here,  and  you  are  losing 
face." 

Then  seven  other  demons  more  dreadful 
than  the  first  seemed  to  enter  into  Wang  Sao 
Tze.  That  she,  the  autocrat  of  her  home,  nay 
of  the  whole  village,  should  be  treated  like  a 
naughty  child  was  unbearable.  She  beat  her 
head  against  the  wall  and  tore  her  hair,  while 
her  voice  rose  and  fell,  and  all  the  time  the 
still  small  voice  of  shame  kept  whispering  in 
her  heart.  Like  her  native  typhoon  the  storm 
raged  all  that  day;  it  was  unbelievable  that 
any  human  frame  could  keep  it  up  so  steadily. 
But,  like  the  wind  of  the  tempest,  her  voice 
began  to  die  down  at  sunset,  and  when  the 
doctor  made  her  evening  rounds  the  noise  had 
ceased  and  she  found  Wang  Sao  Tze  lying  fast 
asleep  from  utter  exhaustion.  Tenderly  they 
lifted  her  upon  her  bed,  but  she  never  stirred. 

When  Wang  Sao  Tze  awoke  the  next 
morning  she  found  herself  gazing  into  the  sad 
eyes  of  her  friend.  For  a  moment  she  felt  in 
clined  to  scream  again,  but  something  in  their 
steady  depths  held  her  quiet,  and  she  sullenly 
turned  her  face  to  the  wall. 

The  soft  voice  spoke  in  words  that  she  alone 


FOREIGN  MAGIC  169 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^"^^^""^^"^^J 

could  hear,  "Wang  Sao  Tze,  I  am  still  your 
friend;  if  you  want  me,  send  for  me."  Then 
she  moved  quietly  away. 

The  next  few  days  were  hard  enough  for 
Wang  Sao  Tze;  she  found  that  Miss  Waring 
had  spoken  only  too  truly  when  she  said  that 
she  had  lost  face.  Women  she  had  been  friend 
ly  with,  and  who  had  done  her  many  kind 
nesses,  shunned  her  or  cast  scornful  glances 
in  her  direction;  and,  hardest  of  all,  the  little 
child,  of  whom  she  had  made  a  pet,  refused  to 
come  near  her,  and  ran  and  hid  when  she  ap 
proached. 

At  last  she  sent  for  Miss  Waring  and  said, 
"Miss  Waring,  I  do  not  understand  your 
strange  foreign  ways;  in  the  village  all  I  had 
to  do  to  get  what  I  wanted  was  to  go  into  a 
rage,  and  I  got  it,  and  the  neighbours  seemed 
to  think  it  was  the  proper  way,  for  there  the 
woman  who  raged  the  longest  and  loudest 
came  out  victorious.  But  here  it  is  different; 
they  all  seem  to  despise  me.  I  have  lost  all 
face ;  I  might  as  well  go  home." 

"Oh,  do  you  not  understand?  We  are  try 
ing  to  teach  you  a  better  way.  Love  and 
kindness  are  stronger  than  all  rage,  for  peo 
ple  will  do  things  for  love  they  would  never 
do  for  anger.  I  came  to  China  because  of 


170  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

_ — __ _ _j 

love  for  the  people,  but  if  I  had  had  hate  in 
my  heart  I  should  have  stayed  in  my  own 
country;  so  love  drew  me  all  these  thousands 
of  miles.  Do  you  not  see  when  you  are  angry 
you  spoil  the  spirit  of  the  place,  and  make  it 
like  a  den  of  snarling  dogs  ?  Please  remember 
also  it  does  you  more  harm  than  it  can  pos 
sibly  do  any  one  else,  for  it  spoils  your  happi 


ness." 


"Well,  Miss  Waring,  your  ways  are  very 
strange,  and  may  work  here,  but  you  do  not 
know  our  village.  I  will  think  over  your 
words." 

Shortly  after  this  conversation  Wang  Sao 
Tze  was  operated  upon,  and  for  several  weeks 
was  very  ill,  so  that  there  was  no  display  of 
anger.  In  her  time  of  weakness  she  uncon 
sciously  absorbed  many  a  lesson  from  her  for 
eign  friends  and  from  the  people  in  the  wards. 
The  very  gentleness  with  which  the  doctor 
dressed  her  wound  was  a  revelation  in  kind 
ness  to  her.  The  patience  of  the  nurse,  who 
never  seemed  to  tire,  and  who  never  said  a 
sharp  word,  no  matter  how  trying  the  sick 
woman  might  be,  all  made  her  marvel.  Now 
Wang  Sao  Tze  was  no  fool,  and  by  the  time 
she  was  able  to  crawl  around  the  wards  she 


FOREIGN  MAGIC 171 

began  to  realise  that  there  might  be  something 
in  the  new  ways. 

She  knew  that  without  the  operation  she 
would  certainly  have  died  a  painful  death; 
and  if  the  foreigners  could  be  so  amazingly 
clever  about  illness,  why  should  they  not  be 
right  about  this  doctrine  of  love  they  talked 
so  much  about?  Moreover,  the  operation  re 
moved  the  terrible  nagging  pain  from  which 
she  had  suffered  so  many  years,  and  without 
it  she  found  that  she  was  far  less  inclined  to 
burst  into  a  passion.  Do  not  think  that  in  a 
few  short  days  this  woman,  who  had  been  sur 
rounded  with  the  blackest  forms  of  immorality 
and  superstition  from  her  earliest  childhood, 
was  turned  at  once  into  a  Raphael's  cherub, 
for  that  was  far  from  the  case.  She  had  many 
a  battle  with  her  old  vices,  and  many  a  time 
she  fell.  But  gradually,  as  the  weeks  went 
by,  her  nature  softened  and  the  hard  lines  of 
suffering  and  temper  on  her  face  changed, 
and  she  began  to  look,  as  one  of  the  foreign 
children  expressed  it,  "as  if  a  lamp  had  been 
lighted  in  her  face." 

She  was  forced  to  stay  in  the  hospital 
several  months  for  treatment,  and  as  she  grew 
stronger  she  helped  with  the  light  work  in  the 
wards,  learning  many  a  lesson  about  hygiene 


172  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

and  cleanliness.  She  was  a  good  worker  and 
quick  at  her  tasks,  so  that  she  would  have 
plenty  of  time  to  sit  and  pore  over  a  simple 
reading  book.  At  this  she  was  very  much 
slower,  but  she  was  eager  to  learn  enough  to  be 
able  to  read  the  story  of  the  Man  who  first  went 
among  poor  people,  healing  their  diseases  arid 
forgiving  their  bad  tempers,  "which  may  have 
been  exactly  like  mine,"  she  often  thought. 

One  Saturday  morning  the  doctor  examined 
her  and  announced  that  she  was  absolutely 
well  and  might  return  home  on  Monday. 
Wang  Sao  Tze  was  not  too  well  pleased  at 
this;  all  the  joy  that  she  had  ever  known  was 
centred  around  the  hospital,  and  her  face  was 
overcast  as  she  went  to  tell  the  news  and  get 
her  treasures  together.  These  consisted  of  a 
collection  of  picture-cards,  together  with  a 
hymn-book  and  Testament.  Her  face  was 
anything  but  a  sunbeam  for  the  remainder  of 
that  day,  and  when  she  started  for  church  the 
next  morning  with  her  books  tied  up  in  a  gaily 
coloured  handkerchief,  she  was  still  the  per 
sonification  of  gloom. 

It  was  a  matchless  winter  day  with  the  sky 
an  unfathomable  blue;  the  air  stirred  one's 
pulses  and  made  one  glad  to  be  alive.  The 
women  sat  in  the  transepts  and  the  men  in 


FOREIGN  MAGIC 178 

the  main  aisle  of  the  church.  Wang  Sao  Tze 
enjoyed  it  all,  the  beautiful  building,  the  choir, 
and  the  responses.  She  had  learned  that  it 
was  decidedly  not  the  thing  to  talk  aloud 
throughout  the  service,  or  call  to  an  acquaint 
ance  in  a  distant  corner,  and  she  liked  the  im 
portance  which  was  attached  to  one  who  kept 
newcomers  in  order.  When  the  Chinese  pastor 
arose  to  preach,  she  settled  herself  back  with  a 
well  satisfied  air  to  listen. 

With  quiet  dignity  he  read  the  words,  "Go 
home  to  thy  friends  and  tell  them  what  great 
things  the  Lord  has  done  for  thee  and  has  had 
compassion  on  thee."  Simply  he  drew  the  pic 
ture  of  that  scene  beside  the  Galilean  lake, 
and  of  the  man  who  had  lately  been  healed, 

and  of  the  Master's  command  to  him.     Skil- 

i 

fully  he  applied  the  lesson  to  these  new  be 
lievers  in  another  Oriental  land;  and  they 
seemed  to  grasp  the  thought  as  many  a  more 
sophisticated  audience  has  failed  to  do,  for  all 
eyes  were  fixed  on  the  preacher's  face.  Wang 
Sao  Tze  never  stirred  until  the  last  hymn  was 
sung;  then,  as  one  awakened  from  a  trance, 
she  turned  from  the  church. 

An  hour  later  Anne  Waring  was  surprised 
by  a  loud  knock  at  the  front  door.  She  opened 
it  herself  to  find  Wang  Sao  Tze  standing  be- 


174  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

fore  her.  In  her  hand  was  a  small  bundle  tied 
in  a  light  blue  cotton  cloth.  Before  her  friend 
had  a  chance  to  speak,  Wang  Sao  Tze  said, 
"Well,  Miss  Waring,  I  have  come  to  say 
good-bye,  for  I'm  off." 

"Off  where?"  exclaimed  her  startled  teacher. 

"Why,  home,  to  be  sure,  the  way  the 
preacher  said,  to  tell  my  friends,  of  course." 

"But  your  husband  is  coming  for  you  to 
morrow;  why  do  you  not  wait  for  him?  I  am 
afraid  you  will  find  it  too  far." 

"If  I  start  now  I  can  reach  home  by  night 
fall.  My  husband  can  call  for  my  things  to 
morrow;  and  you  know,  teacher,  the  preacher 
did  not  say  anything  about  waiting.  He  said 
go  right  home  and  tell  your  friends.  Of 
course,  when  I  heard  that  I  just  had  to  start. 
I  have  tarried  too  long  already,  but  you  see  I 
did  not  know." 

After  this  Anne  Waring  felt  that  she  could 
not  dissuade  her,  and  she  bade  the  woman  an 
affectionate  farewell.  With  pity  and  gladness 
she  watched  the  sturdy  figure  start  off  gal 
lantly  to  meet  the  conservatism  and  persecu 
tion  of  a  Chinese  community  single-handed, 
and  she  made  a  resolution  that  the  very  first 
place  she  visited  on  her  next  itinerating  trip 
would  be  the  Twin  Dog  Village. 


PART  II 

In  those  days  of  which  I  write,  the  Twin 
Dog  Village,  settled  as  it  was  in  the  midst 
of  the  most  densely  populated  part  of  China, 
had  nothing  to  distinguish  it  from  other  vil 
lages.  It  seemed  cut  from  the  same  piece  of 
cloth  as  thousands  of  other  hamlets,  and 
matched  them  so  exactly  that  it  would  be  hard 
for  a  stranger  to  tell  without  inquiry  whether 
he  had  reached  his  destination  or  had  still 
another  li  of  humpy,  bumpy  by-paths  to 
travel. 

There  was  the  usual  group  of  willows  shad 
ing  the  little  collection  of  cottages,  if  the  mud 
huts  that  the  villagers  called  homes  could  be 
dignified  by  such  a  name.  Beside  nearly  every 
house  or  in  front  of  it  there  was  a  little  pool 
of  water.  The  clay  for  the  walls  of  the  dwell 
ing  having  been  dug  therefrom,  and  the  hole 
never  having  been  filled  up,  water  had  settled 
in  it,  thus  making  a  convenient  wash-tub  in 
which  the  lady  of  the  mansion  could  do  her 
laundry  work.  Sometimes  fairly  large  fish 

175 


176  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

m*mmi^^^mm~m^m*im'l^^m~~*mmm^^^m~lllim*m~immmm~*mmm*~^~m**mmmm^m**m^^im^m'^^ 

might  be  seen  swimming  leisurely  back  and 
forth,  and  it  was  considered  fine  sport  by  the 
boys  of  the  village  to  catch  the  fish  in  their 
fingers.  In  the  springtime  the  chorus  of  frogs 
from  these  innumerable  ponds  made  a  volume 
of  sound  that  would  have  driven  a  neuras 
thenic  mad,  but  fortunately  there  are  no  neur 
asthenics  in  a  Chinese  village. 

At  one  end  of  the  hamlet  was  the  usual 
village  well,  and  here  it  was,  on  a  lovely 
spring  evening,  that  three  women  met,  it  must 
be  admitted,  for  a  little  gossip.  The  willow 
wands  over  their  heads  were  turning  a  filmy 
green,  and  tender  little  green  things  were  shy 
ly  beginning  to  peep  from  the  near-by  fields, 
while  at  their  feet  two  unkempt  dogs  were 
snarling  and  fighting,  but  the  women's  heads 
were  too  close  together  to  heed  such  things. 

The  oldest  one,  a  toothless  crone  writh  a  few 
grey  hairs  brushed  over  an  otherwise  bald 
head,  was  talking,  "There  is  no  doubt  about  it, 
Wang  Sao  Tze  is  mad,  quite  mad.  I  knew  it 
from  the  moment  I  first  laid  eyes  on  her  when 
she  returned  from  the  hospital;  her  face  was 
so  changed  that  she  looked  altogether  differ 
ent.  Any  one  could  have  told  her  it  was  not 
safe  to  meddle  with  foreigners,  but  then  she 
always  did  as  she  liked,  and  listened  to  no  ad- 


FOREIGN  MAGIC 177 

vice.  It  is  certainly  plain  that  they  put  for 
eign  magic  into  her  tea  and  that  has  turned 
her  head.  As  for  me,  I  would  rather  bear  a 
thousand  agonies  than  go  to  Feng  Ti  Fu  to 
the  hospital." 

"You  speak,  as  always,  like  the  sages,"  re 
plied  another.  "Such  new  ways  are  against  all 
custom  and  may  bring  the  evil  eye" — here  she 
touched  a  charm — "upon  the  whole  village. 
Do  you  remember  the  first  evening  of  her  re 
turn,  how  she  was  all  smiles  and  politeness? 
Who  ever  saw  Wang  Sao  Tze  polite  before? 
That  was  not  her  disposition.  Then  that  night 
she  refused  to  burn  incense  to  the  kitchen  god 
and  all  the  trouble  began.  In  the  whole  month 
she  has  been  at  home  she  has  only  lost  her 
temper  once,  and  then  she  screamed  but  a 
short  hour  or  two,  and  old  Wang  Si  Fu  does 
not  know  what  to  make  of  it.  He  actually 
beat  her  head  against  the  door  the  other  day 
because  she  insisted  that  she  must  soon  return 
to  Feng  Ti  Fu  for  another  week  of  teaching, 
and  he  said  he  would  kill  her  first.  He  is  no 
longer  afraid  of  her  and  comes  and  goes  as  he 
pleases." 

The  third  woman  now  felt  that  it  was  her 
turn  to  contribute.  "Wang  Sao  Tze  may  be 
bewitched;  I  think  she  is;  I  hope  she  stays 


178  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

so.  Never  since  she  came  here  as  a  bride  has 
the  village  been  such  a  pleasant  place  to  live 
in.  She  was  always  quarrelling,  and  now  we 
have  a  little  peace.  I,  for  one,  think  Wang 
Si  Fu  a  fool  not  to  know  when  he  is  well  off." 

"Well,"  replied  the  first,  "I  might  think 
you  were  right  if  it  were  not  for  the  religion 
she  talks;  evil  is  sure  to  befall  one  who  will 
not  burn  incense  to  the  gods,  or  go  to  the 
temple.  But  her  kindness  has  been  great;  she 
wanted  to  sit  up  all  night  with  De  De,  my 
grandson,  when  he  was  ill  and  give  him  some 
foreign  drug  that  she  said  would  heal  him,  But 
it  was  too  big  a  risk.  We  could  not  allow 
him  to  take  it." 

At  this  moment  the  subject  of  their  conver 
sation  appeared  at  the  other  end  of  the  village 
street.  "There  she  is  now,"  exclaimed  the  old 
crone.  "See,  she  has  in  her  hand  the  book  of 
magic  from  which  she  is  never  parted.  We 
had  better  separate  quickly  before  she  be 
witches  us,  for  I  have  no  doubt  she  knows  we 
have  been  talking  about  her.  People  who  use 
the  black  art  are  very  clever." 

Poor  Wang  Sao  Tze's  path  had  been  a 
good  deal  like  the  country  roads  around  her 
since  her  return  from  the  hospital  at  Feng  Ti 
Fu;  many  were  the  pitfalls  laid  for  her  un- 


FOREIGN  MAGIC 179 

wary  feet,  and  many  the  stones  over  which 
she  stumbled.  She  had  left  her  foreign  friends, 
who  had  given  her  new  life  and  health,  full  of 
high  hopes  of  how  eagerly  she  would  tell  the 
message  to  her  neighbours,  and  how  joyfully 
they  would  listen,  but,  instead,  she  found  only 
dull  indifference  or  ignorant  prejudice.  True, 
tact  was  not  Wang  Sao  Tze's  strong  point; 
it  never  had  been,  because  downright  measures 
had  always  gained  what  she  wanted,  and  she 
was  too  old  to  begin  other  methods. 

An  added  difficulty  was  that  Wang  Si  Fu, 
her  husband,  had  learned  the  sweets  of  liberty 
in  her  prolonged  absence,  and  he  was  loath  to 
return  under  the  bondage  that  had  held  him 
for  so  many  years.  When  she  had  summarily 
torn  down  the  kitchen  idol  and  the  ancestral 
tablet  and  Wang  Si  Fu  found  them  in  the 
pool  outside  the  house,  it  was  his  turn  to  give 
vent  to  a  fit  of  temper,  and  for  the  first  time 
in  his  married  life  he  had  beaten  her  well. 
Wang  Sao  Tze's  spirit,  however,  had  re 
mained  unbroken;  she  had  learned  how  to  be 
happy  and  no  one  could  take  away  the  love 
she  had  for  her  friends  at  Feng  Ti  Fu. 

Another  source  of  joy  was  her  children;  for 
now  that  her  manners  were  more  gentle,  they 
had  ceased  to  fear  her,  and  they  loved  to  hear 


180  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

the  stories  she  had  to  tell  about  the  foreign 
children.  There  was  something  in  her  mien 
that  drew  even  the  neighbour's  children,  and 
they  would  cluster  around  her  whenever  their 
parents  would  permit.  She  also  had  put  into 
practice  some  of  the  laws  of  neatness,  newly 
acquired  but  very  valuable,  and  her  efforts, 
though  crude,  made  her  home  and  children 
seem  almost  to  glow  with  cleanliness  in  com 
parison  to  those  of  her  neighbours. 

The  star  of  hope  that  she  kept  ever  burn 
ing  bright  before  her  through  all  this  dis 
couragement,  was  the  thought  of  the  inquir 
ers'  class  that  was  to  be  held  in  two  months 
and  which  she  had  promised  to  attend.  In 
vain  had  Wang  Si  Fu  threatened  and 
stormed;  to  every  threat  she  had  always  re 
plied,  "I  am  going  if  I  have  to  crawl  on  my 
hands  and  knees." 

On  this  spring  evening  Wang  Sao  Tze  was 
particularly  down-hearted,  for  even  the  little 
children,  warned  by  their  elders  to  avoid  her, 
refused  to  come  to  hear  her  recite  a  hymn  that 
had  always  been  a  favourite.  She  saw  the 
women  at  the  well  quickly  depart  at  her  ap 
proach,  and  she  returned  with  weary  feet  to 
her  own  house  and  seated  herself  at  the  table. 
Then  taking  out  her  book,  with  slowly  pointing 


FOREIGN  MAGIC 181 

P^ ^ mm^ 

finger  she  began  to  read.  So  interested  did  she 
become  that  she  did  not  hear  a  step  behind  her, 
and  was  rudely  brought  back  to  her  surround 
ings  by  a  hand  snatching  at  the  book  and  tear-» 
ing  it  into  pieces. 

Wang  Si  Fu,  his  face  livid  with  rage, 
shouted  to  her,  "How  many  times  have  I  for 
bidden  you  to  read  that  accursed  book?  I  will 
be  obeyed,  for  the  village  fathers  will  turn  us 
out  and  burn  our  goods  if  we  do  not  restore 
the  gods  to  their  places.  They  say  that  you 
are  bringing  down  the  wrath  of  the  idols  upon 
us  all,  for  there  is  not  a  house  where  they  have 
not  had  some  misfortune  since  your  return, 
and  it  is  your  evil  eye  that  has  done  it." 

With  great  difficulty  Wang  Sao  Tze  re 
strained  her  rising  temper;  it  would  be  so 
easy  to  fell  Wang  Si  Fu  with  one  blow  of  her 
sturdy  fist.  Instead,  she  looked  him  steadily 
in  the  eye  and  said,  "I  will  never  put  back  the 
idols;  the  true  God  lives  in  heaven  and  these 
hideous  idols  do  not  resemble  him.  They  are 
an  insult  to  him." 

Such  heresy  added  fuel  to  Wang  Si  Fu's 
rage,  and  snatching  up  a  knife  that  lay  on  the 
table,  he  stabbed  her  in  the  breast.  Wang  Sao 
Tze  dropped  like  a  log  at  his  feet  and  lay 
there  without  moving.  Terrified  by  her  death- 


182  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

like  appearance,  he  sprang  to  the  door  to  call 
for  aid.  In  a  moment  the  room  was  crowded, 
and  the  confusion  of  barking  dogs,  crying  chil 
dren,  and  screaming  women  made  hope  of  re 
covery  seem  most  doubtful.  At  length  one 
woman  with  clearer  head  than  the  rest  man 
aged  to  take  command.  She  saw  that  unless 
the  bleeding  was  stopped  Wang  Sao  Tze 
would  die,  and  so  she  immediately  set  about 
trying  to  staunch  the  wound.  With  a  certain 
rude  skill  she  went  about  her  work,  by  apply 
ing  a  quantity  of  dirty  rags  and  cobwebs, 
and  by  tying  up  the  injured  part  very  tightly, 
she  was  at  length  successful  in  her  efforts. 

It  was  several  hours  before  Wang  Sao  Tze 
opened  her  eyes.  But  at  length  toward  mid 
night  she  stirred  and  lifting  her  eyelids  for  a 
moment,  she  glanced  slowly  around  the  room 
as  if  uncertain  where  she  was,  and  weakly  whis 
pered,  "I  still  expect  to  go  to  Feng  Ti  Fu," 
and  again  closed  her  eyes. 

For  the  next  few  days  public  opinion  was 
very  much  divided  in  the  village.  Of  course, 
every  one  admitted  that  a  husband  had  a  per-* 
feet  right  to  do  as  he  liked  to  his  own  wife, 
but  among  certain  circles  there  was  a  feeling 
that  he  had  gone  a  little  too  far.  It  was  really 
a  bad  policy  to  kill  as  frugal  and  industrious 


FOREIGN  MAGIC  183 

^^m^~~*miii^^m'^^*~~*'~^m'm^^^~m~*~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^m~mm~    ^ "*™^!^ 

a  wife  as  Wang  Sao  Tze.  As  for  Wang  Si 
Fu  himself,  he  had  received  a  fright  that 
greatly  subdued  him.  He  was  not  a  hard 
hearted  man,  only  weak,  and  when  he  saw 
what  he  had  done,  his  sudden  burst  of  passion 
ebbed  away,  and  he  felt  remorseful  and  un 
certain  what  course  to  pursue. 

In  his  dilemma  he  went  to  the  school-teacher, 
a  man  renowned  for  wisdom  as  one  having  all 
the  learning  of  the  sages  at  his  finger  tips. 
He  was  as  much  at  home  in  the  classics  of 
Mencius  and  Confucius  as  the  frogs  were  in 
their  native  ponds.  He  had  taken  his  first 
degree  examinations,  and  in  reality  he  formed 
the  court  of  last  appeal  in  the  village. 

It  would  not  be  etiquette  for  Wang  Si  Fu 
to  mention  his  wife's  name  to  another  man,  but 
by  calling  her  "she,"  and  a  good  deal  of  circum 
locution,  the  teacher,  who  already  knew  a  good 
many  facts  in  the  case,  was  able  to  guess  his 
predicament  fairly  accurately. 

"Your  home  has  been  quite  peaceful,  and 
well  looked  after  this  month,  the  children 
happy,  and  the  meals  tastily  cooked,  is  it  not 
so?  This  change  has  been  pleasant  after  years 
of  storm,  has  it  not?" 

Wang  Si  Fu  was  forced  to  admit  that  it 
was. 


184  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

"You  have  saved  cash,  too,  because  of  this, 
am  I  right?" 

The  seeker  for  truth  consented  to  this  also. 

"Well,  the  classics  tell  us,  'A  perfectly 
illuminated  heart  is  heaven,  a  darkened  heart 
is  hell.'  I  advise  you  to  let  matters  drift  a 
little.  The  foreigners'  doctrine  may  have 
something  in  it,  if  it  teaches  peace  and  dili 
gence." 

This  so  exactly  fitted  in  with  Wang  Si  Fu's 
innermost  feelings  that  he  was  glad  to  accept 
the  suggestion.  Still  there  was  one  more 
point,  "But  the  village  fathers  claim  that  the 
gods  are  angry  and  will  punish  us." 

"I  will  talk  to  the  elders,"  replied  the  teach 
er;  "the  peace  of  the  village  is  for  us  to  take 
care  of;  the  gods  should  protect  themselves 
if  they  do  not  want  to  be  torn  down." 

Wang  Si  Fu  returned  home  greatly  heart 
ened;  he  could  let  Wang  Sao  Tze  have  her 
own  way  when  she  recovered.  In  the  end  it 
was  much  easier. 

After  all,  the  bleeding  was  the  most  serious 
part  of  Wang  Sao  Tze's  injury;  the  knife  had 
escaped  the  lung,  and  it  was  only  a  matter  of 
time  for  the  wound  to  heal.  By  all  the  laws 
of  hygiene  she  should  have  died  of  infection 


FOREIGN  MAGIC  185 

F*""^*^^*^"*™'^^'^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^J 

from  the  dirty  rags,  but  she  was  a  healthy 
woman  and  escaped. 

From  this  day  forward  life  began  to  take  on 
brighter  hues  for  Wang  Sao  Tze;  the  free 
dom  from  the  petty  persecutions  of  her  hus 
band  and  her  neighbours  reacted  on  her  char 
acter,  and  she  became  bright  and  cheerful. 
Nevertheless,  she  was  greatly  astonished  one 
morning  when  Wang  Si  Fu  handed  her  sev 
eral  dollars  and  told  her  that  they  were  to  be 
used  for  her  trip  to  Feng  Ti  Fu.  She  showed 
her  appreciation  by  so  much  industry  and 
kindliness  that  when  the  day  arrived  for  her 
departure,  her  family  and  friends  were  really 
loath  to  see  her  go.  On  her  return  she  did  not 
come  empty  handed,  but  brought  a  goodly 
store  of  picture  postcards,  gospels,  and  other 
things  to  attract  the  interest  of  her  humble 
Chinese  friends.  She  presented  a  copy  of  the 
gospels  to  the  school-teacher,  who  seemed  very 
glad  to  get  it,  and  asked  many  intelligent 
questions  about  the  foreigners,  the  hospital, 
and  particularly  about  the  boys'  school. 

"There  must  be  something  in  it,"  he  said, 
"to  make  them  do  these  good  works.  To 
build  up  character  is  to  acquire  merit,"  and 
he  set  himself  diligently  to  read  the  book  of 
Matthew. 


186  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

Any  one  who  could  have  seen  Wang  Sao 
Tze  sitting  in  her  doorway  at  the  set  of  sun 
with  a  group  of  village  folk  around  her,  would 
easily  realise  that  the  New  Testament  teach 
ing  was  not  a  religion  foreign  to  the  Chinese. 
For  her  methods  were  a  good  deal  like  the 
Master's  of  old.  Looking  out  on  the  harvest 
fields,  very  similar  to  the  fields  in  Palestine, 
she  would  tell  them  of  the  seed  and  the  sower, 
of  the  prodigal  son — they  had  several  in  their 
own  village — of  the  man  who  fell  among 
thieves,  and  of  the  woman  who  lost  the  coin. 
They  could  understand,  for  they  seemed  pic 
tures  of  their  own  village  life,  and  the  Chi 
nese  are  accustomed  to  the  story  form  of  teach 
ing.  Wang  Si  Fu  and  the  teacher  would  often 
come  and  listen  on  the  outskirts  of  the  group, 
and  the  teacher  would  read  a  few  words  from 
his  book. 

According  to  the  rules  of  the  church  at  Feng 
Ti  Fu,  inquirers  must  attend  at  least  two  in 
quirers'  classes  that  were  held  six  months 
apart,  before  they  could  be  admitted.  Once  or 
twice  through  the  six  months,  the  foreigners 
had  been  able  to  come  out  to  the  Twin  Dog 
Village  for  a  brief  visit,  and  to  do  a  little  teach 
ing,  but  it  was  really  the  efforts  and  life  of 
Wang  Sao  Tze  that  made  Wang  Si  Fu  and 


FOREIGN  MAGIC  187 

the  teacher  determined  to  accompany  her  to 
Feng  Ti  Fu. 

"Now  I  know,"  she  joyfully  exclaimed, 
"why  the  preacher  told  me  to  come  home  and 
tell  my  friends." 

To  her  this  class  was  all  important,  for  after 
it,  if  she  passed  her  examination,  she  would 
become  an  active  member  of  the  church.  It 
was  a  very  timorous  Wang  Sao  Tze  that 
finally  appeared  before  the  session  at  Feng 
Ti  Fu ;  she  realised  her  ignorance,  and  that  her 
knowledge  could  not  compare  with  that  of  the 
city  women  who  had  received  daily  instruc 
tion.  Very  tightly  did  she  clasp  the  hand  of 
Miss  Waring  as  she  sat  close  beside  her. 

"Why  do  you  believe  the  gospel?"  she  was 
asked. 

"Because  Miss  Waring  says  it's  true,  and 
she  has  never  yet  told  me  an  untruth,  and  be 
sides  any  one  who  knows  her  must  know  that 
there  is  a  God  just  like  the  one  she  tells 
about." 

"Do  you  love  God?" 

"How  could  I  not  love  him  after  his  amaz 
ing  grace  in  sending  Miss  Waring  so  many 
thousand  miles  to  teach  me?" 

There  were  other  questions  and  other  an 
swers  wherein  love  to  God  and  love  for  Anne 


188  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

Waring  were  strangely  intermingled,  but  the 
session  voted  to  accept  her,  and  the  following 
Sunday  Wang  Sao  Tze  became  a  member  of 
the  church  at  Feng  Ti  Fu. 

From  this  day  forward  the  new  faith  grad 
ually  spread  in  the  village  and  after  two  years 
of  growth  and  struggle  the  foreigners  were 
surprised  one  noon  to  have  the  gatekeeper  an 
nounce  that  some  men  from  the  Twin  Dog 
Village  were  outside  wishing  to  speak  to  them. 
As  soon  as  the  greetings  were  given,  the  school 
teacher,  who  acted  as  spokesman,  said, 

"We  have  presumed  on  your  honourable  pa 
tience  in  the  past  far  more  than  is  polite,  but 
if  you  will  hear  us  again,  we  will  try  and  not 
be  long.  For  many  months  we  have  felt  that 
we  should  have  a  house  for  the  worship  of  God 
in  our  village,  and  to  that  end  we  have  each 
laid  aside  what  savings  we  could  afford.  We 
also  promise  to  contribute  enough  labour  to 
erect  a  building.  We  now  bring  our  money 
to  you  to  know  if  it  is  sufficient  for  the  pur 
pose." 

A  sum  of  money  was  laid  on  the  table.  To 
a  foreigner  it  was  a  paltry  sum  enough,  but 
saved  from  the  sordid  poverty  of  Chinese 
homes  it  was  a  fortune  indeed.  The  foreign 
ers  were  quite  overcome  and  gladly  promised 


FOREIGN  MAGIC  189 

that  they  should  have  their  desire  and  the  men 
returned  home,  rejoicing,  to  tell  their  good 
news. 

Six  years  have  now  elapsed  since  Wang  Sao 
Tze  took  the  bit  in  her  teeth  and  went  to  the 
hospital  at  Feng  Ti  Fu.  No  longer  does  the 
Twin  Dog  Village  exactly  resemble  the  neigh 
bouring  villages;  it  has  a  character  and  indi 
viduality  all  its  own.  An  unprecedented 
prosperity  has  set  in;  gambling,  opium  smok 
ing,  and  other  vices  have  almost  disappeared, 
and  the  money  spent  on  these  has  been  put 
into  property  and  business.  The  teacher 
studied  in  the  school  in  the  city,  and  returned 
with  a  new  vision  of  his  profession;  the  boys 
in  the  school  went  to  the  boarding-school  after 
they  had  learned  all  that  he  could  teach  them; 
there  they  studied  carpentry  and  other  trades, 
and  also  improved  methods  of  farming. 

As  a  result,  the  value  of  land  has  advanced 
in  the  vicinity,  and  new  building  is  going  on 
apace.  When  one  enters  the  village,  the 
streets  that  were  once  so  full  of  holes  have 
been  levelled  and  some  of  the  ponds  filled  up. 
The  mud  walls  of  the  houses  no  longer  gape 
with  holes,  and  the  thatch  that  had  such  a 
moth-eaten  appearance  is  now  kept  in  order. 
At  the  doors  the  women  look  neat  and  well 


190  FOREIGN  MAGIC 

cared  for,  and  the  children  are  neither  so 
ragged  nor  so  dirty. 

Above  all,  what  marks  the  village  from  its 
neighbours  is  the  tiny  church  standing  under 
the  soft  shade  of  the  willows  by  the  cool  spring, 
and  near  it  the  belfry  and  the  bell,  the  pride 
of  many  a  heart;  while  opposite  the  school- 
house  holds  its  sway.  And  when  the  work  of 
the  day  is  done,  and  the  labourers  turn  toward 
home,  their  faces  lighten  and  their  paces 
quicken  as  they  catch  sight,  perhaps  several  li 
away,  of  the  bell-tower,  for  they  know  that 
near  it  is  shelter,  rest,  and  peace. 

Not  long  since  a  carpenter  from  a  neigh 
bouring  town  was  called  by  business  to  the 
hamlet.  He  walked  through  it  with  amaze 
ment  asking,  "How  is  this?  What  has  hap- 
ipened  here?"  The  schoolmaster  did  the 
honours,  explaining  the  change  and  general 
prosperity. 

"Do  you  tell  me  that  the  new  doctrine  did 
all  this?"  the  visitor  asked.  "Why  have  I  not 
known  about  it  before?  Every  one  told  me  it 
was  to  teach  men  how  to  die,  but  instead  it 
teaches  them  how  to  live." 

To-day,  of  all  the  families  in  the  village, 
Wang  Sao  Tze's  is  the  happiest,  for  she  is 
capable  and  thrifty,  and  whatever  she  does 


FOREIGN  MAGIC  191 

seems  to  prosper.  All  the  military  lords  of 
creation  might  talk  to  her  until  doomsday 
about  the  power  of  force,  but  Wang  Sao  Tze 
knows  better,  for  she  has  tried  both  love  and 
hate  and  has  found  from  her  own  experience 
that  love  is  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world.  And 
the  universal  verdict  will  surely  be  that  it  was 
a  fortunate  day  for  the  Twin  Dog  Village 
when  the  foreigners  put  magic  in  Wang  Sao 
Tze's  tea. 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 

AN     INITIAL     FINE~OF    25     CFNTQ 


JUN    23  1833! 


MAS  25  1942  E 
2 


HAus'aSUI 


JAft 


LD  21-50m-l,'33 


405C96 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


